Extreme sea level events in the coastal waters of western Estonia

Suursaar, Ülo; Kullas, T.; Otsmann, M.; Kõuts, Tarmo

doi:10.1016/s1385-1101(03)00022-4

Cited by 36 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The lat ter is re lated to his tor i cal ac counts of "der Seebär" ("the Sea Bear") (Piotrowski, 2007a, b). More over, storms in the Bal tic Sea have been discussed by many au thors (Majewski, 1986(Majewski, , 1989(Majewski, , 1998aStigge, 1994;Dziadziuszko and Jednora³, 1996;Hupfer et al, 2003;Suursaar et al, 2003Suursaar et al, , 2006Klevannyy, 2007, 2010;Gurwell, 2008;Jensen and Müller-Navarra, 2008;Rosenhagen and Bork, 2009;Wioeniewski and Wolski, 2009;Rich ter et al, 2012;Wolski et al, 2014). In most of the ac counts storm de pos its were de scribed as washover fans with a lat eral range lim ited to a few tens of metres (e.g., Rudowski and Wróblewski, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary evidence of extreme storm surge or tsunami events in the southern Baltic Sea (Rogowo area, NW Poland)

Piotrowski

Szczuciński

Sydor

et al. 2017

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The Bal tic Sea is not typ i cally con sid ered as an area af fected by tsu na mis. How ever, dur ing the Late Pleis to cene and Ho lo cene sev eral tsu nami events have been in ter preted from the sed i men tary re cord, mainly in Swe den and Es to nia. Fur ther more, on the south ern coast of the Bal tic Sea, there are his tor i cal ac counts of catastrophical ma rine floodings called "der Seebär" ("the Sea Bear"). Their de scrip tions re veal many fea tures typ i cal for tsu nami, but their gen e sis re mained un known and sed i men tary ev i dence for such events has not been found. Here we pro vide ev i dence of sandy event lay ers from the area of Rogowo, NW Po land -the area of his tor i cal cat a strophic storms as well as "der Seebär" events. The study area is a low-ly ing coastal plain with an av er age el e va tion of -0.5 to +0.5 m a.s.l., pro tected from the open sea by beach and coastal dune sys tems up to 5 m high. Sedimentological, micropalaeontological and geo chem i cal anal y ses along with AMS 14 C dat ing were ap plied to sed i mentary suc ces sions seen in 5 ma jor trenches and 198 sed i ment cores up to 1.5 m long. Two sandy lay ers were iden ti fied in the peat de pos its that de vel oped on the plain dur ing the last ~2000 years. They re veal a num ber of typ i cal fea tures of tsu nami depos its (sig nif i cant lat eral ex tent and thick ness, rip-up clasts, chem i cal and micropalaeontological ev i dence of ma rine or i gin), how ever, 14 C dat ing along with the his tor i cal ac counts re vealed that the ma jor layer, ex tend ing at least 1.2 km from the mod ern coasts, was prob a bly de pos ited by ar gu ably the larg est storm surge dur ing the last 2000 years, which took place in 1497 AD. These storm de pos its were likely formed dur ing in un da tion of the low-ly ing coastal plain af ter ma jor breach ing of coastal dunes re sult ing in tsu nami -like flow pat tern and thus sim i lar sedimentological ef fects. A dis con tin u ous sand layer of youn ger age (18th cen tury) and shar ing sim i lar prop er ties to the pre vi ous one may be re lated to "der Seebär" event or an other storm surge. The study re vealed that the south ern Bal tic Sea coast may be af fected by much greater coastal flood ing than known from more re cent ac counts and ob ser va tions. Thus, the pre sented geo log i cal re cord should be taken as an ex am ple of a worst-case scenario in coastal zone risk as sess ment from nat u ral haz ards. These events left sed i men tary de pos its that re sem ble tsu nami depos its. It is likely that, in sim i lar set tings where storm surges cause uni di rec tional in un da tion of a coastal plain, it may not be pos si ble to es tab lish whether the re sult ing de pos its were laid down from storms or tsu na mis.Key words: tsu nami de pos its, storm surge de pos its, grain size anal y sis, geo chem is try, ra dio car bon dat ing, Bal tic Sea.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary evidence of extreme storm surge or tsunami events in the southern Baltic Sea (Rogowo area, NW Poland)

Piotrowski

Szczuciński

Sydor

et al. 2017

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“…One of the most important of these, the water exchange between the North and the Baltic Seas, which is largely controlled by the mean sea level (MSL) of the North Sea and atmospheric pressure patterns over the North Atlantic, strongly influences the volume of water in the Baltic. In the almost non-tidal Baltic, short-term sea level variations are, to a large extent, due to meteorological forcing (Heyen et al 1996, Samuelsson & Stigebrandt 1996, Wróblewski 1998, Cyberski & Wróblewski 1999, Johansson et al 2001, Suursaar et al 2003, Jasińska & Massel 2007.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal erosion caused by the heavy storm surge of November 2004 in the southern Baltic Sea

Łabuz¹,

Kowalewska-Kalkowska²

2011

Clim. Res.

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TheŚwina Gate Sandbar (southern Baltic Sea) is affected by storm surges caused by passages of deep low-pressure systems over the Baltic Sea. The storm surge of 22-25 November 2004, with a maximum sea level of 1.35 m above mean sea level (MSL) as measured at theŚwinoujście gauging station, was one of the most severe storm events in 1993-2007. It produced changes in the coastal relief by inducing significant erosion of the dune shore in the western and eastern subsections of the sandbar area examined. Seawater flooded the beach and flowed over the low ridges, up to 3 m above MSL. As a result, all relief forms below the 3 m level were eroded, and the dunes retreated by an average of 2 to 6 m. The maximum amount of sediment that eroded away amounted to 22 m 3 per 1 m of coastline. This study showed that the magnitude of coastal erosion and retreat is dependent both on the height and the duration of the sea surge.

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“…At present, the coast in these countries is threatened more by major storm surges than by sea-level rise. Such surges were reported in November 2001, September 2004and January 2005(Tõnisson et al 2006Suursaar et al 2003Suursaar et al , 2008Koltsova and Belakova 2009;Dailidienė et al 2011). …”

Section: Storm Surgesmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The Lithuanian and Latvian coasts are exposed to the west and vulnerable to erosion. In Estonia, more extreme sea levels and storm surges are associated with warmer winters (Suursaar et al 2003). Storms, driven mainly by westerly winds, change the position of pebble capes and other spits.…”

Section: Storm Surgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Impacts—Coastal Erosion and Coastline Changes

Łabuz¹

2015

Regional Climate Studies

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Climate change is having an undeniable influence on coastal areas. This chapter describes the growing threat of climate change on the Baltic Sea coastline, with an emphasis on field research focused on storm surges and coastal retreat. The main climatic factors driving change in the Baltic Sea coastal zone are wind, waves, storm surges, ice jams and flooding. The cumulative effects of these drivers are also important. For example, a costly coastal protection scheme in one area may result in coastal erosion in another. Natural and man-made coastal features are experiencing unprecedented change; important natural habitats, coastal settlements and local economies are all being affected. The extent of storm surge impacts depends on the exposure of a shoreline to a surge event. The submergent and soft coastal relief of the southern Baltic Sea area is under most threat; the rate of retreat depending on the frequency and strength of the storm surges. The rate of coastal retreat has also increased in recent years due to sealevel rise and loss of beaches. KeywordsCoast erosion Á Threats for coast Á Coast type response for climate change IntroductionThe coastal zone is one of the most dynamic environments in the world, because it is where different geospheres interact. Taking place over a range of timescales, these interactions cause dynamic coastal rebuilding, referred to coastal morphodynamics. The factors responsible for change in the coastal zone may be grouped into geological and geomorphological, hydrodynamic, biological, climatic and anthropogenic factors. The main geological factors-sediment type, arrangement and resistance of sediment structures, and isostasy-are the basis of the morphological processes and the development of coastal relief. Geomorphological processes are influenced by many external forces, including climatic factors such as precipitation rain and wind. They are responsible for the development of typical relief forms and sediment supply. Biological factors mainly concern the influence of plants and are responsible for the development of particular coastal types. Anthropogenic factors refer to many human activities taking place within the coastal zone: settlements, industrial development, agriculture, deforestation and coastal protection. The coastal system is a dynamic complex of sensitive factors and typically responds in a nonlinear morphological manner (Dronkers 2005). The wide range of natural and human influences on the Baltic Sea coastline makes it difficult to identify the specific effects of climate change. Exposure to wind is a key factor for coastal development. Climatic conditions greatly influence the inflow of material to the coastal zone, by determining the amount and origin of terrigenic material supplied to the coastal zone as well as the amount of biogenic material produced and supplied to the sediments. The combination of sea-level rise, land subsidence and isostatic rebound creates both emergent and submergent coasts. Emergent coasts are identifiable by accumulative

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Extreme sea level events in the coastal waters of western Estonia

Cited by 36 publications

References 12 publications

Sedimentary evidence of extreme storm surge or tsunami events in the southern Baltic Sea (Rogowo area, NW Poland)

Sedimentary evidence of extreme storm surge or tsunami events in the southern Baltic Sea (Rogowo area, NW Poland)

Coastal erosion caused by the heavy storm surge of November 2004 in the southern Baltic Sea

Environmental Impacts—Coastal Erosion and Coastline Changes

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