6th Colloquium on historical earthquakes & paleoseismology studies

Causes and hazard of lake tsunamis: a multidisciplinary approach from Swiss Lakes

24 Oct 2018, 13:45

35m

Han-sur-Lesse

Poster Preference Session 2 Posters Poster Session 1

Speaker

Katrina Kremer (Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich)

Description

Marine tsunamis have been increasingly discussed in the context of ocean-wide natural hazards since the 2004 Sumatra and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunamis. While ocean tsunamis are usually caused by earthquake-related plate displacements, tsunamis in lakes can have a seismic or aseismic cause. The wave-causing mechanisms are usually related to mass-movement processes that displace large amounts of water causing devastating waves. Historical evidences in Switzerland has shown that tsunamis occurred in many lakes (e.g. 563 AD in Lake Geneva, 1601 and 1687 AD in Lake Lucerne etc.) causing large damage and also casualties. The causes of these tsunamis were diverse and varying between the different lake basins and events. An interdisciplinary Sinergia project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, uses the outstanding field laboratory of Switzerland's lakes to understand better lake tsunamis by investigating their trigger mechanisms, wave propagation, inundation, sedimentation processes and their related hazard. In this contribution, we will present the project and highlight the main objectives.