The November 2020 landslide, tsunami, and outburst flood at Elliot Creek

https://nautil.us/the-ecological-catastrophe-youve-never-heard-of-257291/

by subharmonicon • 4 years ago

26 6 4 years ago

nautil.us

gnabgib• 4 years ago

Title: The Ecological Catastrophe You’ve Never Heard Of

A tsunami (habour wave[0]) was impossible.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami

defrost• 4 years ago

Impossible?

I'd love to hear you expand on that.

From your link:

A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

From the article:

In seconds, 50 million tons of rubble landed in the milky-turquoise waters of Elliot Lake at the glacier’s foot. . The load of rocks that entered Elliot Lake forced up a tsunami over 300 feet tall—high as a skyscraper. The tsunami then blasted down the narrow lake at over 110 miles per hour.

A 300 ft high wave caused by water dislaced by landslide fits the notions I've always had about a Tsunami.

m463• 4 years ago

I like this animation which helped me visualize the process:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami#/media/File:Propagatio...

btilly• 4 years ago

I'm reminded of the coulees of eastern Washington State that were formed by similar (but much larger) events at the end of the last ice age.

https://wadnr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=...

We live in a world with an illusion of stability. When the illusion is shattered, it can be impressive.

throwaway290• 4 years ago

I think there is a theory Younger Dryas was caused by something like that in Canada but at a way more epic scale.

dendrite9• 4 years ago

The best article I saw about this was from the Hakai institute. I found it very interesting and engaging, like their article about the Fraser river flooding last year. The 360 imagery, and slider comparisons do a good job to help understand the scale of the slide. Worth the time to read it. https://hakai.org/the-big-slide/

If you wanted to watch 50 mintues of helicopter flight over the debris, they posted one here: https://hakai.org/bute-inlet-landslide-the-extended-cut/

It looks like some researchers may have gotten lucky with the timing of this: https://twitter.com/bedform/status/1338989245487321091

And the slide cooled the inlet below it: https://hakaimagazine.com/news/massive-landslide-cools-fjord...

The November 2020 landslide, tsunami, and outburst flood at Elliot Creek

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