Sustainable Marine Structures

This study presents results of a numerical simulation of tsunami waves caused by submarine landslides along the eastern slope of the Ross Sea. Two hypothetical landslide sources are analyzed using a segment-block model. Results are presented for numerical modeling of landslide motion along the submarine slope and for the computation of tsunami generation and propagation caused by submarine landslides. For both scenarios, numerical simulations of tsunami generation by the landslide source and tsunami wave propagation to nearby islands and continental coastlines are performed. For the first landslide source, the maximum tsunami height for the Ross Sea coast can reach 10 m, for the Chilean coast it is about 3 m, with an average arrival time of about 4 h, for the New Zealand coast the maximum tsunami height is about 2 m, with an average arrival time of about 2 h, for the Australian coast near Sydney, the maximum tsunami height was about 0.7 m, with an average arrival time of about 3 h. The second, smaller landslide source can create a tsunami with a maximum wave height of only 3 m for the Ross Sea coast, 0.5 m for the Chilean coast, about 1 m for the New Zealand coast, and about 0.3 m for the Australian coast near Sydney, with the same average arrival times as Source 1. Thus, the paper demonstrates the importance of assessing tsunami hazard along the Pacific coasts from possible landslide events in the Ross Sea area.