Landslide tsunamis in lakes

Abstract

Landslides plunging into lakes and reservoirs can result in extreme wave runup at the shores. This phenomenon has claimed lives and caused damage to near-shore properties. Landslide tsunamis in lakes are different from typical earthquake tsunamis in the open ocean in that (i) the affected areas are usually within the near field of the source, (ii) the highest runup occurs within the time period of the geophysical event, and (iii) the enclosed geometry of a lake does not let the tsunami energy escape. To address the problem of transient landslide tsunami runup and to predict the resulting inundation, we utilize a nonlinear model equation in the Lagrangian frame of reference. The motivation for using such a scheme lies in the fact that the runup on an inclined boundary is directly and readily computed in the Lagrangian framework without the need to resort to approximations. In this work, we investigate the inundation patterns due to landslide tsunamis in a lake. We show by numerical computations that Airy’s approximation of an irrotational theory using Lagrangian coordinates can legitimately predict runup of large amplitude. We also demonstrate that in a lake of finite size the highest runup may be magnified by constructive interference between edge waves that are trapped along the shore and multiple reflections of outgoing waves from opposite shores, and may occur somewhat after the first inundation.