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The retreat of glaciers in response to global warming has the potential to trigger landslides in glaciated regions around the globe. Landslides that enter fjords or lakes can cause tsunamis, which endanger people and infrastructure far from the landslide itself. Here we document the ongoing movement of an unstable slope (total volume of 455 × 10⁶m³) in Barry Arm, a fjord in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The slope moved rapidly between 2010 and 2017, yielding a horizontal displacement of 120 m, which is highly correlated with the rapid retreat and thinning of Barry Glacier. Should the entire unstable slope collapse at once, preliminary tsunami modeling suggests a maximum runup of 300 m near the landslide, which may have devastating impacts on local communities. Our findings highlight the need for interdisciplinary studies of recently deglaciated fjords to refine our understanding of the impact of climate change on landslides and tsunamis.

 

Recent observations of energetic infragravity (IG) flooding events, such as those in the Philippines during Typhoon Haiyan, suggest that IG surges may approach the coast as breaking bores with periods of minutes: a very tsunami‐like characteristic. Energetic IG waves have been observed in various locations around the world and have led to loss of lives and damages to property. In this study, a comparison of overland flow characteristics between tsunamis and energetic IG wave events is presented. In general, whenever the tsunamis and energetic IG waves have similar runup, tsunamis tend to generate greater flow depths and longer flood durations than IG. However, flow velocities and Froude number are larger for IG primarily due to bore‐bore capture. This study provides a statistical and physical discriminant between tsunami and IG, such that in areas exposed to both, a proper interpretation of overland transport, deposition, and damage is possible.

 

Numerous field observations of tsunami-induced eddies in ports and harbours have been reported for recent tsunami events. We examine the evolution of a turbulent shallow-water monopolar vortex generated by a long wave through a series of large-scale experiments in a rectangular wave basin. A leading-elevation asymmetric wave is guided through a narrow channel to form a flow separation region on the lee side of a straight vertical breakwater, which coupled with the transient flow leads to the formation of a monopolar turbulent coherent structure (TCS). The vortex flow after detachment from the trailing jet is fully turbulent ( $Re_h \sim O(10^{4}\text {--}10^{5}$ )) for the remainder of the experimental duration. The free surface velocity field was extracted through particle tracking velocimetry over several experimental trials. The first-order model proposed by Seol & Jirka ( J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 665, 2010, pp. 274–299) to predict the decay and spatial growth of shallow-water vortices fits the experimental data well. Bottom friction is predicted to induce a $t^{-1}$ azimuthal velocity decay and turbulent viscous diffusion results in a $\sqrt {t}$ bulk vortex radial growth, where $t$ represents time. The azimuthal velocity, vorticity and free surface elevation profiles are well described through an idealised geophysical vortex. Kinematic free surface boundary conditions predict weak upwelling in the TCS-centre, followed by a zone of downwelling in a recirculation pattern along the water column. The vertical confinement of the flow is quantified through the ratio of kinetic energy contained in the secondary and primary surface velocity fields and a transition point towards a quasi-two-dimensional flow is identified. 

Inundation from storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the 2011 East Japan tsunami, have caused catastrophic damage to coastal communities. Prediction of surge, wave, and tsunami flow transformation over the built and natural environment is essential in determining survival and failure of near-coast structures. However, unlike earthquake and wind hazards, overland flow event loading and damage often vary strongly at a parcel scale in built-up coastal regions due to the influence of nearby structures and vegetation on hydrodynamic transformation. Additionally, overland flow hydrodynamics and loading are presently treated using a variety of simplified methods (e.g. bare earth method) which introduce significant uncertainty and/or bias. This study describes an extensive series of large-scale experiments to create a comprehensive dataset of detailed hydrodynamics and forces on an array of coastal structures (representing buildings of a community on a barrier island) subject to the variability of storm waves, surge, and tsunami, incorporating the effect of overland flow, 3D flow alteration due to near-structure shielding, vegetation, waterborne debris, and building damage.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/EDLiEK6b64E 

During tropical cyclones, processes including dune erosion, overwash, inundation, and storm-surge ebb can rapidly reshape barrier islands, thereby increasing coastal hazards and flood exposure inland. Relatively few measurements are available to evaluate the physical processes shaping coastal systems close to shore during these extreme events as it is inherently challenging to obtain reliable field data due to energetic waves and rapid bed level changes which can damage or shift instrumentation. However, such observations are critical toward improving and validating model forecasts of coastal storm hazards. To address these data and knowledge gaps, this study links hydrodynamic and meteorological observations with numerical modeling to 1) perform data-model inter-comparisons of relevant storm processes, namely infragravity (IG) waves, storm surge, and meteotsunamis; and 2) better understand the relative importance of each of these processes during hurricane impact.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/kUizy8nK3TU 

For many practical and theoretical purposes, various types of tsunami wave models have been developed and utilized so far. Some distinction among them can be drawn based on governing equations used by the model. Shallow water equations and Boussinesq equations are probably most typical ones among others since those are computationally efficient and relatively accurate compared to 3D Navier-Stokes models. From this idea, some coupling effort between Boussinesq model and shallow water equation model have been made (e.g., Son et al. (2011)). In the present study, we couple two different types of tsunami models, i.e., nondispersive shallow water model of characteristic form(MOST ver.4) and dispersive Boussinesq model of non-characteristic form(Son and Lynett (2014)) in an attempt to improve modelling accuracy and efficiency.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/cTXybDEnfsQ 

The time series of free surface elevation measured in and outside the shadow zone were compared and analyzed in the time-frequency domain by employing the continuous wavelet transform. Regardless of the conditions of the ERF wave in the shadow zone, an increase in magnitude of energy is noticeable not only in the peak frequency within a range of approximately 0.8 to 1 Hz but also in the low-frequency range of around 0.1 Hz corresponding to second up to third crest of the leading wave. To determine the effective frequency of ERF waves and evaluate their runup characteristics, we applied a new method of describing the ERF wave, which consists of linear superposition of two solitary waves. As a result, the ERF waves show the same trend in runup characteristics as for solitary waves.