scholarly journals A Possible Tsunami Deposit Associated to the CE 1755 Lisbon Earthquake on the Western Coast of Portugal

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaela Tudor ◽  
Ana Ramos-Pereira ◽  
Pedro J.M. Costa

The CE 1755 Lisbon tsunami was the largest historical tsunami to affect the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North Africa. This study presents the results obtained from the application of different sedimentological techniques (e.g., grain size, morphoscopy, microtextural analysis, geochemistry, radiocarbon dating) on sediments retrieved from the Alcabrichel River alluvial plain (of about 500 m far away from its mouth and approximatively 50 km northwest of Lisbon, Portugal). The results allowed the identification of a sandy layer that was associated with the CE 1755 tsunami. Furthermore, a new microtextural semi-quantitative classification was applied to enhance the identification of extreme marine inundation deposits. Based on sedimentological data, three different tsunami inundation phases were identified, including two inundations and a likely backwash. This innovative work offers physical evidence of the spatial presence of the CE 1755 tsunami event on the western coast of Europe. It also enables a reconstruction of tsunami inundation dynamics, with two flooding waves and an interspersed backwash.

Author(s):  
Valérie Clouard ◽  
Jean Roger ◽  
Emmanuel Moizan

Abstract. In order to assess tsunami hazard in oceanic islands, one needs to enlarge the observational time window by finding more evidence of past events. To that end, evidence of allochthonous deposits provides estimates of tsunami inundation, recurrence time and magnitude. However, in tropical islands, erosion due to the highly rainy climate generally prevents deposits to stay in place and when they are, relating them to a tsunami is not straightforward, as they can result either from a strong hurricane or from a tsunami. One notable exception concerns deposits sealed by subsequent events. In this paper, we present evidence of an anomalously thick two-layer tsunami deposit in an excavation in Martinique. Analysis of the archaeological remains indicate that it is related to the 1755 Lisbon tsunami. We explain the thickness of the deposit by a tsunami-induced bore in the mangrove drainage channels of Fort-de-France. Our results highlight the benefits of collaborative research involving geology and archaeology, indicate a way to improve our tsunami databases and further constrain the use of numerical modelling to predict paleo-tsunami deposit thickness.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Santos ◽  
◽  
Shunichi Koshimura ◽  
Fumihiko Imamura ◽  

The Lisbon Earthquake of November 1, 1755, one of the most catastrophic events that has ever occurred in Portugal, Spain, or Morocco, caused severe damage and many casualties. The tsunami generated by this earthquake is well documented in historical accounts, it was reported throughout the North Atlantic Ocean, as it reached not only Portugal, Spain, and Morocco, but also the Madeira and Azores Archipelagos, England, Ireland, and the Caribbean. In spite of the importance of this event, the source of the tsunami remains unknown. In this paper, the authors reevaluate some of the historical tsunami travel times obtained by previous authors. Based on these times, wave ray analysis is used to determine the location of the tsunami source area. These results, combined with turbidites obtained by previous authors at the Tagus and Horseshoe Abyssal Plains, lead to the conclusion that the source of the 1755 Lisbon Tsunami could be located in the area of the Gorringe Bank. Then, a hydrodynamic simulation is carried out with this area presupposed as the source. The numerical model results provide good agreement when compared with both historical and sedimental records. However, in the past, the Gorringe Bank has been dismissed as the source of this tsunami for several reasons. Therefore, these issues are discussed and discredited. As a consequence of all these facts, it can be concluded that the origin of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and Tsunami could be located in the area of the Gorringe Bank.


Author(s):  
Hideo Matsutomi ◽  
Fumiko Konno

For the sophistication of the tsunami load, future and historical tsunami scale evaluations, the dependency of the density of tsunami inundation water with sediment on the hydraulic quantities, and then the dependencies of the tsunami run-up distance, sediment deposit distance, mean sediment deposit thickness on the density of the tsunami inundation water are examined through a devised small-scale hydraulic experiment. Within the experimental range of this study, it is verified that the density of the tsunami inundation water depends on the Froude number of the incident tsunami inundation flow and the sediment grain size, and the relative tsunami run-up distance (= the run-up distance of the inundation water with sediment/the run-up distance of the inundation water without sediment (= fresh water)), ratio of the tsunami sediment deposit distance to the tsunami run-up distance, ratio of the mean tsunami sediment deposit thickness to the tsunami sediment deposit distance depend on the density of the tsunami inundation water, and four empirical expressions for those dependencies are proposed.


X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildefonso Navarro Luengo ◽  
Adrián Suárez Bedmar ◽  
Pedro Martín Parrado

The castle of San Luis (Estepona Málaga): Origin and evolution of a bastion fort. Sixteenth to twenty-first centuriesThe results of the investigation prior to the excavation work in the Castle of San Luis, in Estepona (Málaga, Spain) are presented. It is a coastal fortress built in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, in the context of the reorganisation of the defense of the western coast of Malaga after the Moorish rebellion of 1568. After analysing the available literature, we propose that it was designed by the Engineer Juan Ambrosio Malgrá, Maestro Mayor de obras del Reino de Granada. The Castle of San Luis is devised as an add-on construction on the southern front of the walls of Islamic origin, dominating the natural anchorage of the Rada beach. Its most prominent elements are three bastions, two of them with casemates, and a large main square. However, various defects in the design and execution of the works, added to the insufficient provision of artillery and garrison, affected the effectiveness of the fortification throughout its history. In the middle of the eighteenth century, part of the Castle of San Luis is restructured as a cannons’ battery. Following the damage caused by the Lisbon Earthquake, in 1755, and by the French and English blastings in 1812, during the second half of the nineteenth century much of the castle disappears, leaving only the cannons’ battery, which is incorporated as a courtyard in height as an add-on to a house built at the end of the nineteenth century. At present, after several decades of abandonment, excavation works have been undertaken on the remains of the battery, after which the site will be prepared to be used as a museum.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichiro Tanioka ◽  
◽  
Aditya Riadi Gusman ◽  
Kei Ioki ◽  
Yugo Nakamura

Paleotsunami studies have shown that several large tsunamis hit the Pacific coast. Many tsunami deposit data were available for the 17thcentury tsunami. The most recent tsunami deposit study in 2013 indicated that the large slip of about 25 m along the plate interface near the Kurile trench would be necessary and the seismic moment of this 17thcentury earthquake was 1.7 × 1022Nm. If a great earthquake like the 17thcentury earthquake occurs off the Pacific coast of Hokkaido, the devastating disaster along the coast is expected. To minimize the tsunami disaster, a development of the real-time forecast of a tsunami inundation area is necessary. Estimating a tsunami inundation area requires tsunami numerical simulation with a very fine grid system of less than 1 arcsecond. There is not enough time to compute the tsunami inundation area after a large earthquake occurs. In this study, we develop a real-time tsunami inundation forecast method using a database including many tsunami inundation areas previously computed using various fault models. After great earthquakes, tsunamis are computed using linear long-wave equations for fault models estimated in real time. Simulating such tsunamis takes only 1-3 minutes on a typical PC, so it is potentially useful for forecasting tsunamis. Tsunami inundation areas computed numerically using various fault models and tsunami waveforms at several locations near the inundation area are stored in a database. Those computed tsunami waveforms are used to choose the most appropriate tsunami inundation area by comparing them to the tsunami waveforms computed in real time. This method is tested at Kushiro, a city in Hokkaido. We found that the method worked well enough to forecast the Kushiro’s tsunami inundation area.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 968-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Adriano ◽  
◽  
Erick Mas ◽  
Shunichi Koshimura ◽  
Miguel Estrada ◽  
...  

The implementation of adequate urban development and measures systems against tsunami impact in coastal communities is improved by understanding damage probability among building structures. Within the framework of the project Enhancement of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Technology in Peru (JST-JICA SATREPS), the authors analyze the damage probability of building structures due to tsunami impact in the Callao region of Peru. Two different tsunami hazard scenarios are assumed in assessing building damage probability. The first tsunami scenario represents the worse-case scenario of tsunami inundation that calculates the envelop of maximum inundation depth and flow velocity values from 12 probabilistic megathrust earthquake scenarios for central Peru. The second tsunami scenario corresponds to a historical tsunami event in this region. We apply a methodology for evaluating different levels of building damage by combining tsunami numerical results and tsunami fragility functions. Damage probability was analyzed in detail on a single building scale in the La Punta district. For the rest of Callao region, analysis was performed on a block-unit scale. Our results suggest that approximately 30% of submerged building may be washed away by tsunami inundation in the probabilistic hazard scenario and approximately 60% in the historical hazard scenario.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Bellanova ◽  
Mike Frenken ◽  
Yuichi Nishimura ◽  
Jan Schwarzbauer ◽  
Klaus Reicherter

AbstractWith a minimum of three reported waves, the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami’s destructive force caused massive damage along the northern Japanese Aomori coast. At Misawa the coastal control area was inundated up to 550 m inland and sandy sediment remnants can be traced to c. 350 m (c. 61–63% of the maximum inundation) from the shoreline. Linking the discovery of floatable plastic objects within a woody and organic layer to our analytical data lead to the detection of a yet undocumented woody-organic tsunami deposit first appearing on top of the sandy deposit but then reaching even further inland (approx. 69–72% of the max. inundation). By this observation our understanding of the documented part of the tsunami inundation may be improved. As a consequence, sand sheets of historic and paleo-tsunamis represent minimum estimates for the coastal inundation and underestimation may be reduced by addressing the woody and organic fraction of a tsunami’s inundation.


Author(s):  
William P. Wergin ◽  
P. F. Bell ◽  
Rufus L. Chaney

In dicotyledons, Fe3+ must be reduced to Fe2+ before uptake and transport of this essential macronutrient can occur. Ambler et al demonstrated that reduction along the root could be observed by the formation of a stain, Prussian blue (PB), Fe4 [Fe(CN)6]3 n H2O (where n = 14-16). This stain, which is an insoluble precipitate, forms at the reduction site when the nutrient solution contains Fe3+ and ferricyanide. In 1972, Chaney et al proposed a model which suggested that the Fe3+ reduction site occurred outside the cell membrane; however, no physical evidence to support the model was presented at that time. A more recent study using the PB stain indicates that rapid reduction of Fe3+ occurs in a region of the root containing young root hairs. Furthermore the most pronounced activity occurs in plants that are deficient in Fe. To more precisely localize the site of Fe3+ reduction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were utilized to examine the distribution of the PB precipitate that was induced to form in roots.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Schubert

Abstract. The sense of presence is the feeling of being there in a virtual environment. A three-component self report scale to measure sense of presence is described, the components being sense of spatial presence, involvement, and realness. This three-component structure was developed in a survey study with players of 3D games (N = 246) and replicated in a second survey study (N = 296); studies using the scale for measuring the effects of interaction on presence provide evidence for validity. The findings are explained by the Potential Action Coding Theory of presence, which assumes that presence develops from mental model building and suppression of the real environment.


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