Boulder accumulations produced by the 20th of February, 1743 tsunami along the coast of southeastern Salento (Apulia region, Italy)

Mastronuzzi, Giuseppe; Pignatelli, Cosimo; Sansò, Paolo; Selleri, Gianluca

doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2006.10.025

Cited by 107 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Finally, two other events, which occurred in the early modern period and have been reported in histor- ical accounts of Malta (De Soldanis, 1746;Galea, 2007) are the AD 1693 (eastern Sicily) and the AD 1743 (Apulia, Lower Ionian Sea) events. These strong earthquakes triggered tsunamis which, according to Scicchitano et al (2007) and Mastronuzzi et al (2007), are responsible for similar boulder deposits in eastern Sicily and the Apulia region. These two tsunamis could be related to the boulders located at Bahar iċ-Ċaghaq (B1) and Pembroke (16).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…One of the most impressive pieces of evidence of extreme wave impact on the Mediterranean coasts is represented by the occurrence of mega-boulders, sparse or in fields or berms whose accumulations have been attributed both to tsunamis and storm events Sansò, 2000, 2004;Mastronuzzi et al, 2007;Scicchitano et al, 2007Scicchitano et al, , 2012Barbano et al, 2010;Vacchi et al, 2012;Raji et al, 2015). Notwithstanding the impressive growth in the last 50 years of studies aimed to develop an appropriate methodology, which may (in the absence of field witnesses) link these boulder deposits to a well-defined process (Williams and Hall, 2004;Hall et al, 2006;Mastronuzzi et al, 2006;Scheffers and Scheffers, 2006;Pignatelli et al, 2009;Goto et al, 2010), no undisputed consensus has yet been reached on how to differentiate between the boulders accumulated by a sea storm from those deposited by a tsunami.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Boulder accumulations related to extreme wave events on the eastern coast of Malta

Biolchi

Furlani

Antonioli

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The accumulation of large boulders related to waves generated by either tsunamis or extreme storm events have been observed in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Along the eastern low-lying rocky coasts of Malta, five sites with large boulder deposits have been investigated, measured and mapped. These boulders have been detached and moved from the nearshore and the lowest parts of the coast by sea wave action. In the Sicily-Malta channel, heavy storms are common and originate from the NE and NW winds. Conversely, few tsunamis have been recorded in historical documents to have reached the Maltese archipelago.We present a multi-disciplinary study, which aims to define the characteristics of these boulder accumulations, in order to assess the coastal geo-hazard implications triggered by the sheer ability of extreme waves to detach and move large rocky blocks inland.The wave heights required to transport 77 coastal boulders were calculated using various hydrodynamic equations. Particular attention was given to the quantification of the input parameters required in the workings of these equations, such as size, density and distance from the coast. In addition, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C ages were determined from selected samples of marine organisms encrusted on some of the coastal boulders. The combination of the results obtained both by the hydrodynamic equations, which provided values comparable with those observed and measured during the storms, and radiocarbon dating suggests that the majority of the boulders have been detached and moved by intense storm waves. These boulders testify to the existence of a real hazard for the coasts of Malta, i.e. that of very high storm waves, which, during exceptional storms, are able to detach large blocks of volumes exceeding 10 m 3 from the coastal edge and the nearshore bottom, and also to transport them inland. Nevertheless, the occurrence of one or more tsunami events cannot be ruled out, since radiocarbon dating of some marine organisms did reveal ages which may be related to historically known tsunamis in the Mediterranean region, such as the ones in AD 963, 1329, 1693 and 1743.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Boulder accumulations related to extreme wave events on the eastern coast of Malta

Biolchi

Furlani

Antonioli

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Many authors used Nott's equations to determine if sea storm or tsunami were responsible for boulder displacement (e.g. Scheffers, 2002Scheffers, , 2004Mastronuzzi and Sansò, 2004;Mastronuzzi et al, 2007;Scicchitano et al, 2007;Maouche et al, 2009); some of these studies have permit to deduce that storm and tsunami heights calculated by Nott's equations appear overestimated (e.g. Scheffers, 2002Scheffers, , 2004Paris et al, 2009;Goto et al, 2010b;Bourgeois and MacInnes, 2010).…”

Section: Boulder Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the most impressive evidence of extreme wave impact on the rocky coasts is represented by the presence of mega-boulders, sparse or accumulated in field or berms (Mastronuzzi andSansò, 2000, 2004;Williams and Hall, 2004;Hall et al, 2006Hall et al, , 2008Scheffers and Scheffers, 2006;Mastronuzzi et al, 2007;Scicchitano et al, 2007;Goto et al, 2009aGoto et al, , b, 2010a. The post-event surveys performed after the impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami (IOT), occurred on December 26, 2004, have permitted to recognise morphological/sedimentological effects of its impact and, in the same time, to extend all obtained results on coastal sectors where similar evidences were recognised (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial Laser Scanner techniques in the assessment of tsunami impact on the Maddalena peninsula (south-eastern Sicily, Italy)

et al. 2012

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The coastline of the Maddalena peninsula (south-eastern Sicily, Italy) is characterised by the occurrence of a boulder field associated to an extended soil stripping area and by a gravel/sandy berm. The accumulation of the boulders has been mostly correlated to the impact of the December 28, 1908 tsunami wave. The use of Terrestrial Laser Scanner survey techniques, associated to Differential Global Position System determinations, permits to obtain new data for the assessment of tsunami impact on this coastal area. The computing of the surveyed data using the most recent equations is a useful tool in order to estimate the theoretic inundation limit and to reconstruct its variability in function of the boulders size and of the coastal topography. Moreover, the entire new data set allows to confirm that the hypothesis of the tsunami impact is the most reasonable to explain the occurrence of boulders weighing up to 50 tons on the Maddalena peninsula.

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“…They are mainly interpreted as the signature of tsunami events, but in some case boulder accumulations are markers of tropical cyclones or storm events. While there is no ambiguity for observations of recent tsunamis (Goff et al, 2006;Goto et al, 2007), large boulder accumulations may be associated with historic and prehistoric events related to tsunamis (Nott, 2000;Mastronuzzi and Sansò, 2000;Williams and Hall, 2004;Mastronuzzi et al, 2007;Maouche et al, 2009;Paris et al, 2009). Nevertheless, we cannot rule out the possibility of transport by storms (Barabano et al, 2010), and some recent case studies show the role of storm waves in forming boulder accumulations worldwide (Noormets et al, 2002;Nott, 2004;Goto et al, 2009Goto et al, , 2011Suanez et al, 2009;Etienne and Paris, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First evidence of accumulation of mega boulders on the Mediterranean rocky coast of Provence (southern France)

Vella

Demory

Canut

et al. 2011

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. An accumulation of boulders was recently discovered along the rocky coast of the Gulf of Fos located in Provence, in an area exposed to a south-westerly wave regime. The coast around this locality forms the western extremity of the calcareous Nerthe range between Marseille and the Rhône Delta. Several mega blocks are scattered to a distance of 30 m behind the coast line. The largest block (33.5 tonnes) has been transported about 39 m inland, up to about 2 m a.s.l. On the Mediterranean coast, the origin of such blocks is often attributed to tsunami-generated waves, but in the case examined here, although the origin is unclear, the differences in surface state between boulders indicates several events generated by south-westerly storms. Radiocarbon dating on several different shells collected from seven different boulders yields a wide dispersion of ages ranging from 4000 BP to the Modern Period. The differences in surface appearance, as well as the differences of fauna conservation and surface coloration, in some cases in a very fresh state, along with the dispersion of radiocarbon ages, suggest that historic storm events have affected these megablocks.

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Boulder accumulations produced by the 20th of February, 1743 tsunami along the coast of southeastern Salento (Apulia region, Italy)

Cited by 107 publications

References 27 publications

Boulder accumulations related to extreme wave events on the eastern coast of Malta

Boulder accumulations related to extreme wave events on the eastern coast of Malta

Terrestrial Laser Scanner techniques in the assessment of tsunami impact on the Maddalena peninsula (south-eastern Sicily, Italy)

First evidence of accumulation of mega boulders on the Mediterranean rocky coast of Provence (southern France)

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