Characterization of Recent Mass Movements and Implications for Geohazard Evaluation on the Western Black Sea Margin

Abstract. In this article, we describe the first operational implementation of the GHER hydrodynamic model. This happened onboard the research vessel "Alliance", in the context of the Turkish Straits System 2008 campaign, which aimed at the real-time characterization of the Marmara Sea and (south-western) Black Sea. The model performed badly at first, mainly because of poor initial conditions. Hence, as the model includes a reduced-rank extended Kalman filter assimilation scheme, after a hindcast where sea surface temperature and temperature and salinity profiles were assimilated, the model yielded realistic forecasts. Furthermore, the time required to run a one-day simulation (about 5 min of simulation, or 10 min with pre-processing and data transfers included) is very limited and thus operational use of the model is possible.

Download Full-text

Archaeological oceanography and environmental characterization of shipwrecks in the Black Sea

Geology and Geoarchaeology of the Black Sea Region: Beyond the Flood Hypothesis ◽

10.1130/2011.2473(11) ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michael L. Brennan ◽

Robert D. Ballard ◽

Katherine L. Croff Bell ◽

Dennis Piechota

Keyword(s):

Black Sea ◽

The Black Sea ◽

Environmental Characterization

Download Full-text

Quantitative characterization of subaqueous landslides in Lake Zurich (Switzerland) based on a high-resolution bathymetric dataset

Geological Society London Special Publications ◽

10.1144/sp477.7 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 477 (1) ◽

pp. 399-412 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

M. Strupler ◽

F. S. Anselmetti ◽

M. Hilbe ◽

M. Strasser

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Lake Basin ◽

Mass Movements ◽

Mass Wasting ◽

Morphometric Analyses ◽

Position Index ◽

Lake Zürich ◽

Lake Floor ◽

The Individual

AbstractNew high-resolution surveying techniques allow subaqueous geomorphology to be investigated in great detail. Such analyses are important as the morphologies are often indicative of past processes, including mass movements. For peri-alpine Lake Zurich, many mass-wasting events have occurred in the past millennia. While the ages of these events are known from past studies on the respective deposits in the lake basin, the surface expressions and distribution of the respective features on the slopes have not been extensively described. Here we quantitatively characterize the morphologic features on the entire lake floor. A total of 50 subaqueous landslides are morphologically identified in a high-resolution digital bathymetric model (DBM), mapped and characterized using a geographic information system (GIS). Many slides show relatively small erosion areas (<0.05 km2) and are located in shallow water (<10 m water depth). The roughness of the individual landslide-translation areas is quantified using the standard deviation of a measure called bathymetric position index (BPI) and related to the slides ages. The DBM allows the detection of traces of mass-movements dating back to c. 5000 cal years BP. Our results demonstrate that morphometric analyses on a high-resolution DBM can contribute to a better understanding of sublacustrine mass movements.

Download Full-text