Dangerous slide until June 2019.
NASA / Walisa Higgins
Glaciers in Alaska are threatening to provoke a potentially fatal and historic tsunami as it retreats under the extreme stress of climate change.
The glacier flowing into Prince William Sound’s Barry Arm has been rapidly receding in recent years, with the result that some adjacent slides held by the glacier for centuries have become unstable. At least since 2010, one has been falling, especially in slow motion. Researchers fear it could trigger a mega tsunami if the sound is completely broken.
Ground Truth, an Alaskan geologist and Broadwood Higgins, co-author of a study published October 29 in Geophysical Research Letters, said it could be catastrophic if the field failed at the same time.
In the study, the researchers modeled under different circumstances that such a fall produces a tsunami at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) around the sound, which is frequently encountered by large cruise and cargo ships as well as fishing boats. And kayakers. They reported that waves could reach a height of 33 feet (10 meters) in the nearby city of Whittier.
“The first numbers were hard to believe,” said Chunley Dye, lead author at Ohio State University. “We calculated that the fall would release 16 times more debris and eleven times more release than Alaska’s 1958 Litua Bay landslide and mega-tsunami.”
The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued.
Similar earthquakes, significant rainfall or other factors can trigger a slide on the berry arm at any time. In 2017, a similar but small-scale tsunami struck West Greenland, killing four people.
“People are working on investigation warnings as soon as possible, so people in nearby communities can at least be alerted if a landslide occurs,” said Anna Liljedhel, another co-author hydrologist.
It is one of the less obvious ways in which the planet’s temperature threatens to damage or destroy life and property. In the Andes Peru, landslides in glacial lakes Large cities are at risk of catastrophic flooding downstream.
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“This is a very unusual phenomenon, and scientists have only begun to study the connections between glacier retreats and landslides and tsunamis over the last few decades,” Higgins said. “We don’t have a very long or deep record yet.”
However, new data continues to come from Prince William Sound. On Tuesday, a report from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said satellite images showed “a new movement of volatile slides in the form of an eight-inch downslope creep between October and October.”
State officials are telling everyone to avoid the area of Prince William Sound near Barry Arm.
