The application of microtextural and heavy mineral analysis to discriminate between storm and tsunami deposits

Costa, Pedro; Gelfenbaum, Guy; Dawson, Sue; Selle, S. La; Milne, F.; Cascalho, João; Lira, Cristina; Andrade, César; Freitas, Maria Conceição; Jaffe, Bruce E.

doi:10.1144/sp456.7

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In specific case studies, Costa et al . () and La Selle et al . () suggested that storm events tend to be fed by sediments from the beach while tsunamis entrain a wider assemblage of sediments from the dune, beach and alluvial plain.…”

Section: Discrimination Of Tsunami Depositsmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…These authors suggested the use of the total volume of sediment deposited to differentiate tsunami and storm deposits. In specific case studies, Costa et al (2017) and La suggested that storm events tend to be fed by sediments from the beach while tsunamis entrain a wider assemblage of sediments from the dune, beach and alluvial plain.…”

Section: Discrimination Of Tsunami Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tsunami deposits: Present knowledge and future challenges

Costa

Andrade

2020

Sedimentology

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Tsunami deposits are the primary source of information on (past) large tsunami events and thereby are crucial for accurate hazard assessments. Tsunami deposits studies have developed over the last three decades, but this is still a young geoscience discipline. Following the 5th International Tsunami Field Symposium in 2017 an opportunity arose to publish a Special Issue focusing on present knowledge and future research challenges. This paper aims to briefly review current state‐of‐the‐art research, summarizing major findings and gathering relevant works that describe the progress achieved over the last three decades. In this paper the relevance of tsunami deposits, their peculiar sedimentary characteristics and their differentiation from other high energy events are presented. Especially over the last decade an incredibly high number of studies have been published on tsunami deposits, many of which are of a high quality and provide detailed literature reviews. Some of these studies represent the current progress discussed here. Challenges are also introduced, to spur a discussion on future scientific questions that can and should be addressed by tsunami geoscientists. Coupling onshore–offshore records is an area where tsunami geoscience faces some of its major challenges. Moreover, the application of non‐destructive high‐resolution techniques to study the internal structure and composition of tsunami deposits can also provide an opportunity to further examine deposits, and from this derive physical parameters of the forcing mechanism. Another topic is better understanding of the erosional signature of tsunami events and a continuation of the effort to better incorporate age‐estimation methods by developing more accurate dating methodology. Finally, there is also the need for the improvement of empirical, forward and regressive numerical models to better contribute to the characterization of tsunami events.

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Section: Discrimination Of Tsunami Depositsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discrimination Of Tsunami Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tsunami deposits: Present knowledge and future challenges

Costa

Andrade

2020

Sedimentology

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“…Storm quartz grains are, in contrast, characterized by more percussion marks and fresh surfaces compared to potential source material (Bruzzi and Prone 2010;Costa et al 2017), suggesting derivation from offshore areas not subjected to beach rounding (Dahanayake and Kulasena 2008).…”

Section: Marine or Terrestrial Signal In Quartz Grains?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quartz grains reveal sedimentary palaeoenvironment and past storm events: A case study from eastern Baltic

Kalińska

Stivriņš

Grudzinska

2018

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Sediment record collected from the coastal lake serves as a powerful tool for reconstructing changes in palaeoenvironment and understanding the potential signals of past storminess. In this study, we use several proxies from sediment of the Holocene Thermal Maximum at coastal Lake Lilaste, Latvia. We focus on surface texture of quartz grains from the mineral inorganic fraction as indicators of depositional environments. We then use this as a proxy for potential storm transport and combine with information on granulometry, diatom stratigraphy and chronology to answer the question whether flux of quartz grains in the lake originated from the sea or from the land. Analyses in a binocular and scanning electron microscope reveal that most of the investigated quartz grains originate from dwelling in the seawater and wave action in the nearshore zone. Grains representing very energetic subaqueous environment similar to storm events are also present. Terrestrial record is of minor significance and visible through occurrence of aeolian quartz grains.

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“…Among the early studies was that of Atwater (1987) who found evidence of more than six soil layers buried below tsunami deposits over the past 7000 years along the Puget Sound coastline of Washington State. Costa et al (2014), studied the sedimentological records and related microtexture and heavy mineral assemblage for three events in Portugal in AD 1755, Scotland in 8200 BP and in Indonesia associated with the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. Sawai (2001) and Nanayama et al (2003) recognized major tsunamis due to extensive coastal inundation along the eastern coast of Hokkaido (northern Japan); the repeated sand sheet layers several kilometres inland evidenced a 500 year tsunami cycle in the period between 2000 and 7000 BP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleotsunami deposits along the coast of Egypt correlate with historical earthquake records of eastern Mediterranean

Salama¹,

Meghraoui²,

Gabry³

et al. 2018

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. We study the sedimentary record of past tsunamis along the coastal area west of Alexandria (NW Egypt) taking into account the occurrence of major historical earthquakes in the eastern Mediterranean. The two selected sites at Kefr Saber (∼32 km west of Marsa-Matrouh city) and ∼ 10 km northwest of El Alamein village are coastal lagoons protected by 2–20 m-high dunes parallel to the shoreline. Field data were collected by (1) coastal geomorphology along estuaries, wedge-protected and dune-protected lagoons; and (2) identification and spatial distribution of paleotsunamis deposits using five trenches (1.5 m-depth) at Kefr Saber and twelve cores (1 to 2.5 m-depth) at El Alamein. Detailed logging of sedimentary sections was conducted using X-rays, grain size and sorting, total organic and inorganic matter, bulk mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, and radiocarbon dating to identify past tsunamis records. Generally of low energy, the stratigraphic succession made of coastal lagoon and alluvial deposits includes intercalated high-energy deposits made of mixed fine and coarse sand with broken shells, interpreted as catastrophic layers correlated with tsunami deposits. Radiocarbon dating of 46 samples consist in mixed old (>13 000 BP) and young (<5500 BP), dated charcoal and shells in sedimentary units correlate with the 24 June AD 1870 (Mw 7.5), 8 August AD 1303 (Mw ∼ 8) and 21 July AD 365 (Mw 8–8.5) large tsunamigenic earthquakes that caused inundation along the Alexandria and northern Egyptian shoreline. Our results point out the size and recurrence of past tsunamis and the potential for future tsunami hazards on the Egyptian coastline and the eastern Mediterranean regions.

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The application of microtextural and heavy mineral analysis to discriminate between storm and tsunami deposits

Cited by 26 publications

References 46 publications

Tsunami deposits: Present knowledge and future challenges

Tsunami deposits: Present knowledge and future challenges

Quartz grains reveal sedimentary palaeoenvironment and past storm events: A case study from eastern Baltic

Paleotsunami deposits along the coast of Egypt correlate with historical earthquake records of eastern Mediterranean

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