RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 8, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2006ES000211, 2006
Phenomena similar to tsunami in Russian internal basinsI. I. Didenkulova1,2, and E. N. Pelinovsky1,3 1Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia2Institute of Cybernetics, University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia 3Nizhniy Novgorod State Technical University, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia Contents
Abstract[1] Descriptions and records of phenomena similar to tsunami in Russian internal basins: rivers, lakes, and artificial water supply reservoirs are collected. During a period of 400 years, nine events of such type were found, seven of which can be considered reliable. The collected material confirms the risk of tsunami and phenomena similar to tsunami in all water reservoirs and the necessity of informing the population about this hazard. 1. Introduction[2] The recent catastrophic tsunami, which occurred on 26 December 2004, in the Indian Ocean, attracted the attention of specialists to a serious analysis of tsunami danger in the regions, where this phenomenon was not actually considered dangerous, and the tsunami warning services did not exist. Speaking about tsunami in Russia, first of all, Far East is mentioned as the region, in which tsunami occurs relatively frequently, and tsunami warning service has been developed. Numerous literature sources exist with tsunami description at the Pacific coast of Russia. Here, we mention a few reviewing publications [Shchetnikov, 1990; Soloviev, 1978; Soloviev and Ferchev, 1961; Zayakin, 1996]. Historical data together with numerical publications became the basis for developing a scheme of tsunami zoning of Far East [Go et al., 1988]. In the last years, new occurrences of tsunami were recorded in Far East. Among them the catastrophic Shikotan tsunami on 5 October 1994 [Ivashchenko et al., 1996; Yeh et al., 1995], which actually confirmed the validity of the developed scheme of tsunami zoning. At present, the research of traces of paleo-tsunami (strong tsunami in the past) has been developed in Far East. In summer 2005, one of the authors (ID) took part in one of such expeditions on Kunashir and Shikotan islands. We also note that catastrophic Indonesian tsunami in 2004 was recorded by pressure gauge in SeveroKurilsk, which emphasizes one more time the global character of tsunami propagation in the World Ocean. [3] As to the other regions of Russia, no tsunami warning systems exist there, and tsunami risk studies have been only started there. First of all, we note more than 20 cases of tsunami in the Black Sea, which occurred during the entire historical period [Dotsenko, 1995; Nikonov, 1997; Yalciner et al, 2004; Zaitsev, 2006]. The major part of them was local and was induced by earthquakes in the sea. Approximately 10 weak tsunamis are known in the Caspian Sea, the major part of which are related to underwater mud volcanism [Dotsenko, et al., 2000; Nikonov, 1996; Zaitsev et al., 2004], (E. Pelinovsky, preprint, 1999). Two occurrences of paleo-tsunami (approximately 10000 years ago) were found in the Baltic Sea [Morner, 1999]. We also note a tsunami of asteroid origin in the Barents Sea [Shuvalov et al, 2002]. We emphasize that such kind of events can occur in any place (not necessarily in the seas and oceans), and occurred already in Russia. For example, 350 mln. years BP, falling of an asteroid in the region of Kaluga (at that time covered with sea) led to the occurrence of tsunami waves [Masaitis, 2002]. At present, much attention is focused on tsunami waves of asteroid origin [Kharif and Pelinovsky, 2005].
2. Tsunami of Seismic Origin[5] Occurrence of tsunamis in lakes and reservoirs, and other internal basins generated by seismotectonic displacements of the bottom is beyond controversy. The data of such observations were accumulated. We already cited a few cases of seismic origin in Lake Kineret [Amiran et al., 1994]. Let us mention the cases of seismic tsunami observations in Russian basins. [6] First of all let us mention tsunami in Lake Baikal. The most known case occurred on 12 January 1862 (31 December 1861, according to the old calendar) during Tsyganskoye earthquake in the delta of the Selenga River at its southeastern coast. The magnitude of this earthquake is estimated as 7.1 [Golenetsky, 1997; Mushketov and Orlov, 1893]. "The wave collapsed at the shore, destroyed the winter huts of peasants, and spread over more than 2 km inland destroying the forest on its way" [Golenetsky, 1997]. It is likely that during this event a giant seismogenic landslide occurred and a large region of the delta of the Selenga River descended more than by five meters forming Proval Bay whose square is 203 km2. [7] A weak tsunami is mentioned in [Soloviev and Ferchev, 1961] (amplitude of a few tens of cm) recorded by limnographs during Mid-Baikal earthquake on 29 August 1959 (magnitude of the earthquake was M = 6.5). It is noteworthy that more than 300 weak and strong earthquakes are recorded annually only in Mid-Baikal region. The Selenga delta is one of the most active seismic regions here. During the last century, four destructive earthquakes occurred in the delta: the one in 1862 mentioned above (intensity I=8-9, M=7.5), in 1871 (I=8-9, M=6.3), in 1903 (I=8-9, M=6.7), and the one in 1959 mentioned above (I=9, M=6.8) [Dashevsky and Martynov, 2002]. The set of seismotectonic data makes us think that earthquakes with magnitudes 7.5-8 and recurrence of 100-200 years are possible in Lake Baikal, which can lead to the generation of tsunami wave with amplitudes up to 1-2 m. However, tsunami risk for the coast of Lake Baikal has not been calculated yet. [8] Nikonov, [2004] analyzed the epos of Karelo-Finns. It follows from this analysis that strong earthquakes occurred in the past in Karelia (on the rivers and lakes, as well as on the coast of the Black Sea) with intensity of 7-8, which were likely followed by tsunamis. Although this information is not definite, but taking into account the construction of hydroelectric and nuclear power stations in Karelia, it should be studied.
[10] The most probable mechanism of the appearance of observed oscillations of water surface is the known effect of seaquake over the source of underwater earthquake [Alexandrov et al., 1986; Levin and Nosov, 2005], which is caused by parametric generation of waves at the water surface in the oscillation gravity field. Taking into account that characteristic seismic frequencies of soil oscillations caused by a close earthquake are within the interval from 3 Hz to 5 Hz, the characteristic frequencies of parametrically generated waves at the water surface are 1.5-2.5 Hz, while the wavelengths are 20-70 cm. The maximal amplitude of such wave can be estimated from the known relation for steepness of the limiting Stokes wave, which is equal to 0.143. It follows from this that the amplitude of the limiting wave at the water surface varies in the interval from 3 cm to 10 cm, and such wave can be noted by an observer. It is likely that this was the "deliberate oscillation in water" observed by Lieut. Balle during the earthquake in 1806. Generation of long waves that we usually identify with tsunami is not reported in this case, which can be explained by small amplitude of the earthquake. At the same time, a historical event is known when weak earthquake with the same magnitude 3.7 in 1992 caused a notable tsunami with a wave height of 80 cm on Hainan Island in Tonkin Bay [Lander et al., 2003]. It is not excluded that weak earthquake induced a landslide, which became the source of notable tsunami. These processes are currently studied in detail [Yalciner et al., 2003]. Since one of the coasts of the Volga River is steep, landslides from this coast are very possible (below, we shall present the corresponding data), so that tsunami hazard in the reservoirs located not in a seismic zone should not be underestimated.
3. Tsunamis of Landslide Origin
[15] It is worth noting that landslide phenomena are also characteristic of other regions of the Volga River. For example, a landslide is described in [Tatevosyan and Mokrushina, 2003], which occurred in 1839 in Fedorovka village near Syzran (approximately 450 km from Nizhniy Novgorod). During this event, notable unrest and oscillations of land were observed, which lasted three days, later they decayed gradually. This landslide could possibly be accompanied by the generation of waves in the river, and we include this event in the summary as a possible tsunami. We also note landslide events at the shore of Sura River in Poreyskoye village of Simbirsk region in 1865 and in Saratov in 1884 [Tatevosyan and Mokrushina, 2003]. [16] A description of tsunami in 1885 on Irtysh River is given in book [Levin and Nosov, 2005]. The wave generated as a result of landslide turned over and threw to the opposite coast a vessel that passed at a distance of one kilometer from the place of the collapse. [17] Among tsunami waves observed in artificial water supply reservoirs the most impressive example is the formation of a wave 235 m high in Vajont (Italy) reservoir on 9 October 1963, which occurred as a result of collapsing of cliff rocks with a volume up to 270 mln. cubic meters near the dam [Panizzo et al., 2005]. This event was already mentioned in the Introduction. The giant wave propagated to the valley of Piave River covering Longerone town, which resulted in the death of all its inhabitants. The event of 1963 was the second in the history of the reservoir. On 4 November 1960, during the first filling of the basin, a landslide occurred (with a volume of 700,000 m3 ) that caused a 10-meter tsunami wave at the coast. In the other Italian water supply reservoir (Pontesei), a 20-meter tsunami wave generated on 22 March 1959 by a landslide killed a bicyclist that moved along the road [Panizzo et al., 2005]. Formation of big waves in Russian water supply reservoirs is also recorded (Krasnoyarsk reservoir in 1970); however, specific data were not given [Mamradze et al., 1991], thus we relate this case to possible tsunamis. [18] It is clear from the facts described above that landslide phenomena are frequently accompanied with wave generation and calculation of tsunami waves should be part of estimating the landslide phenomena in rivers, lakes, and water reservoirs. 4. Tsunamis of Volcanic Origin
[20] Karymskoye tsunami confirms the main properties of volcanic tsunami: small size of the source, very high wave heights near the epicenter, and rapid decay of the height with distance. We note that in 1883, the famous eruption of Krakatau volcano in Soende Strait (Indonesia) led to a runup of the waves with maximal value equal to 45 m causing 36,000 deaths at the coasts of the strait. Tsunami waves from this eruption were recorded in many countries. The analysis of pressure gauge records of this tsunami was made in [Pelinovsky et al., 2005]. The Karymskoye eruption is weaker than the Krakatau, but however it led to very high waves (30 m) so that long term hazard of volcanic tsunamis in Kamchatka and Kuril Islands should be specially calculated. 5. Conclusion
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Index Terms: 4564 Oceanography: Physical: Tsunamis and storm surges; 1799 History of Geophysics: General or miscellaneous; 1719 History of Geophysics: Hydrology. ![]() Citation: 2006), Phenomena similar to tsunami in Russian internal basins, Russ. J. Earth Sci., 8, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2006ES000211. (Copyright 2006 by the Russian Journal of Earth SciencesPowered by TeXWeb (Win32, v.2.0). |