kensi
2020-05-22 02:25:12 UTC
Warming temperatures have caused the retreat of a glacier that helps
support a steep, mile-long slope along one flank of a fjord in Prince
William Sound, about 60 miles east of Anchorage. With only a third of
the slope now supported by ice, the scientists said, a landslide could
be triggered by an earthquake, prolonged heavy rain or even a heat wave
that could cause extensive melting of surface snow:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html
[Previous tsunamis caused by similar mechanisms include a 300-foot-high
one in Greenland in 2017, a 600-foot-high one in Alaska in 2015, and a
whopping 1720-foot one in Alaska in 1958. That last is a third of a mile
high; half a kilometer; more than tall enough to completely submerge the
Empire State Building or the Freedom Tower. The potential energy if the
Barry Arm site gives way is enormously larger than even the 1958 event,
perhaps producing a wave initially a full MILE HIGH -- enough to
submerge the Burj Khalifa twice over -- and which would still be
skyscraper-tall when it reached Whittier, the nearest town, and 10 feet
tall by the time it reached the city of Anchorage.]
support a steep, mile-long slope along one flank of a fjord in Prince
William Sound, about 60 miles east of Anchorage. With only a third of
the slope now supported by ice, the scientists said, a landslide could
be triggered by an earthquake, prolonged heavy rain or even a heat wave
that could cause extensive melting of surface snow:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html
[Previous tsunamis caused by similar mechanisms include a 300-foot-high
one in Greenland in 2017, a 600-foot-high one in Alaska in 2015, and a
whopping 1720-foot one in Alaska in 1958. That last is a third of a mile
high; half a kilometer; more than tall enough to completely submerge the
Empire State Building or the Freedom Tower. The potential energy if the
Barry Arm site gives way is enormously larger than even the 1958 event,
perhaps producing a wave initially a full MILE HIGH -- enough to
submerge the Burj Khalifa twice over -- and which would still be
skyscraper-tall when it reached Whittier, the nearest town, and 10 feet
tall by the time it reached the city of Anchorage.]
--
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain
the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy." ~David Brooks
"I get fooled all the time by the constant hosiery parade
in here." ~Checkmate
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain
the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy." ~David Brooks
"I get fooled all the time by the constant hosiery parade
in here." ~Checkmate