Chris Spencer

University of the West of England

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Javier Lario

National University of Distance Education

Teresa Bardajı́

Universidad de Alcalá

Wendy Woodland

University of the West of England

Tom Hill

Natural History Museum

ÁM

Ángel Marchante

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Susan B. Marriott

University of Bristol

David J. Case

Mayo Clinic in Arizona

Víctor Hugo Garduño‐Monroy

Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo

Jorge Macı́as

Universidad de Málaga

José Luis Goy Goy

Universidad de Salamanca

Cooperative Institutions

Universidad de Salamanca

Universidad de Alcalá

Curtin University

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Australian Research Council

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales

University of Southampton

University of the West of England

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Holocene extreme wave event in Cope Basin, Spain, Western Mediterranean

Javier Lario Chris Spencer Teresa Bardajı́Ángel Marchante

The Iberian Mediterranean coast has very few geological records of EWE (Extreme Wave Events) such as tsunamis or storm surges. Some historical tsunamis have been reported in the region, however, their impact at the coast has been negligible. In Cope Basin (Murcia) there is a boulder ridge containing boulders of >1 m extending up to 8 masl, which was generated by a EWE, either a tsunami or storm surge. The area's regional geodynamics are governed by the indentation process of the Aguilas Arc that gave place to a major left lateral transcurrent zone, known as the Eastern Betics Shear Zone (EBSZ). Stronger seismic activity in the area is clearly concentrated along faults within the EBSZ which are oriented perpendicular or oblique to the main stress field. These ENE-WSW to E-W faults have produced instrumental earthquakes of 5.2 Mw and historical ones with an estimated magnitude of 6.2 to 6.9 Mw, although very low instrumental seismic activity has been recorded within the proper Aguilas Arc (Bardaji et al., 2015). Different approaches to calculate the minimum height of the tsunami wave or storm wave capable of moving these boulders have been applied using formulas for a JBB scenario by Engel and May (2012) and for a submerged scenario (Nott, 2003). These models show that storms in this part of the Mediterranean cannot generate these boulder ridges, whereas the decision matrix for tsunamis on the Spanish Mediterranean coast indicates that a 6.0-6.5 Mw earthquake less than 40 km offshore and at a depth of less than 100 km would have the potential to generate a locally destructive tsunami (IOC, 2011). Tsunami generation models also show that in the Iberian Peninsula, Murcia is the province affected by the greatest tsunamis, mainly generated in Northern Algeria (Alvarez-Gomez et al., 2011).

Mediterranean Basin

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Pre-classic Mayan extreme wave event in eastern Yucatán, Mexico

Javier Lario Teresa Bardajı́Chris Spencer Ángel Marchante Víctor Hugo Garduño‐Monroy

The Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico has usually been considered to be a tectonically stable region, without seismic activity, in contrast, it is an area regularly affected by hurricanes. A detailed survey of ca. 100 km of the coast between Playa del Carmen and the Tulum coast, and the east coast of Cozumel Island identified the presence of three ridges containing boulders measuring >1 m and reaching five metres in height associated to Extreme Wave Event (EWE) activity. The application of different approaches to calculate the minimum height of the tsunami wave or storm wave capable of moving these boulders demonstrates that the minimum wave height for the displacement ranges from 2.5 to 2.9 m for a tsunami and from 10.5 to 11.5 m for a severe storm (using formulas for a JBB scenario by Engel and May, 2012). The submerged scenario of Nott (2003) produces ranges from 2.0 to 2.4 m (Ht) and from 8.0 to 9.8 m (Hs). Models of tsunami propagation in the Caribbean (Engel et al., 2016) show that a tsunami generated by a Mw 7.99 earthquake from the Muertos Thrust Belt (MTB) cannot reach the Yucatan coast. However, a tsunami generated by a Mw 8.8 earthquake generated in South Caribbean Deformed Belt (SCBD) can reach the northeastern Yucatan coast with a wave height lower than 1.0 m. However, the occurrence of hurricanes in this area is more common, and two of the most destructive produced 6-8 m high waves at the coast and an inundation up to 5 km inland (Hurricane Gilbert, 1988), and 8-10 m high waves at the coast (Hurricane Wilma, 2005). Even though evidence of ancient earthquakes has been identified in the area, the tsunami origin of the boulder ridges is not reliable and the data collected suggests that the ridges can be associated to a mega-hurricane.

Peninsula

Tsunami wave

East coast

Wave height

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An extreme wave event in eastern Yucatán, Mexico: Evidence of a palaeotsunami event during the Mayan times

Sedimentology (2019)

Javier Lario Chris Spencer Teresa Bardajı́Ángel Marchante Víctor Hugo Garduño‐Monroy

Abstract The Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, has typically been considered a tectonically stable region with little significant seismic activity. The region though, is one that is regularly affected by hurricanes. A detailed survey of ca 100 km of the eastern Yucatán and Cozumel coast identified the presence of ridges containing individual boulders measuring >1 m in length. The boulder ridges reach 5 m in height and their origin is associated with extreme wave event activity. Previously modelled tsunami waves from known seismically active zones in the region (Muertos Thrust Belt and South Caribbean Deformed Belt) are not of sufficient scale in the area of the Yucatán Peninsula to have produced the boulder ridges recorded in this study. The occurrence of hurricanes in this region is more common, but two of the most destructive (Hurricane Gilbert 1988 and Hurricane Wilma 2005) produced coastal waves too small to have created the ridges recorded here. In this paper, a new tsunami model with a source area located on the Motagua/Swan Island Fault System has been generated that indicates a tsunami event may have caused the extreme wave events that resulted in the deposition of the boulder ridges.

Peninsula

Tsunami wave

10.1111/sed.12662

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Devensian Late-glacial environmental change in the Gordano Valley, North Somerset, England: a rare archive for southwest Britain

Journal of Paleolimnology (2007)

Tom Hill Wendy Woodland Chris Spencer Susan B. Marriott David J. Case

Stadial

Sedimentation

10.1007/s10933-007-9171-5

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Tectono-metamorphic record of final Nuna assembly and orogenic collapse in the Georgetown Inlier, NE Australia: Insights from multiple P-T-d-t paths

EGUGA (2019)

Silvia Volante William J. Collins Eleanore Blereau Amaury Pourteau Zheng‐Xiang Li

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Palaeoenvironmental investigations in the Scotney Marsh trough, Romney Marsh

Chris Spencer Wendy Woodland

Trough (economics)

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Devensian late-glacial environmental change in the Gordano Valley, North Somerset, UK: A rare archive for southwest England

Tom Hill Chris Spencer Wendy Woodland Susan B. Marriott David J. Case

Environmental change

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Late quaternary environmental change in the Gordano Valley

Quaternary Research Association eBooks (2006)

Tom Hill Wendy Woodland Chris Spencer David J. Case Susan B. Marriott

Environmental change

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Presencia de bloques asociados a un evento de oleaje extremo en el Mediterráneo occidental (Cabo Cope, Murcia, España): posible evidencia de un tsunami

Journal of Iberian Geology (2023)

Javier Lario Chris Spencer Teresa Bardajı́

Abstract The region of Murcia, in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, experiences moderate tectonic activity, with earthquakes of up to 6.2–6.9 Mw recorded. Even with seismic activity of this scale there is no geological or instrumental record of tsunamis affecting the area. The presence at Cape Cope, Murcia of a ridge of metre-sized imbricated boulders (comprised of Upper Pleistocene sediments) reaching a height of up to 4 m above sea level, indicates that there has been an extreme wave event in the area during the Holocene. Through studying the wave conditions generated during large storms in this area, the boulder ridges appear to have been caused by extreme waves associated with a seismic event, as a tsunami.

Peninsula

10.1007/s41513-023-00208-8

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A review of the high energy events in the Gulf of Cadiz: tsunami vs. storm surges

Javier Lario Luis Luque Caridad Zazo José Luis Goy Goy Chris Spencer

During the last decade many papers have appeared devoted to the occurrence of high energy marine episodes associated with sedimentological, palaentological o geomorphological features. Currently the most complete record of Holocene high energy marine events comes from the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Iberia) (Fig. 1). These studies focused on the recognition and description of different deposits from high energy events which have been interpreted as having occurred from tsunamis. A revision of these data reveal that only few of these events left clear evidence that can be considered of tsunamigenic origin.

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High energy

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