Tsunamis Struck Coasts of Triassic Oceans and Seas: Brief Summary of the Literary Evidence

Abstract

Studying palaeotsunamis is important to the comprehensive understanding of these events and their role in the geological evolution of the coasts of oceans and seas. The present work aims at summarizing the published information on Triassic tsunamis to document their spatiotemporal distribution and the related knowledge gaps and biases. A bibliographical survey was undertaken to collect the literature sources, and their content was examined to extract the principal information about palaeotsunamis. The certainty of the literary evidence for particular localities and regions is addressed by checking the consistency of the published interpretations. It is found that tsunamis were discussed commonly in different parts of the world for the Permian–Triassic transition and the end-Triassic. However, the certainty of the literary evidence is questionable in both cases. Some interpretations of palaeotsunamis were disputed, and storm versus tsunami interpretations were offered in several cases. A few tsunamis were also reported from the Olenekian–Carnian interval but with the same quality of literary evidence. Taking into account the frequency of tsunamis in the historical times and the Holocene, as well as the presence of their possible triggers in the Triassic, it is proposed that the analyzed literary evidence is significantly incomplete, and, thus, our knowledge about Triassic tsunamis is imperfect. Further research should aim at studying them in a bigger number of localities, paying attention to the Olenekian–Norian interval and trying to relate them to different triggers.