01/05/09

Study reveals tsunami hazard to Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe: A tsunami would only take a few minutes to travel from Dominica to Guadeloupe Copyright: Flickr/Manuel|MC

By: María Elena Hurtado

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Study reveals tsunami hazard to Guadeloupe</h1>
<h4>By: María Elena Hurtado</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><span>The Caribbean island of Guadeloupe may be under threat from a tsunami, and inhabitants will have little warning if it happens, scientists have discovered. </span></p>
<p><span>A million-tonne chunk of rock from the northern side of the Morne aux Diables (Devils’ Peak) volcano on the nearby island of Dominica could collapse into the sea, unleashing tsunami waves of up to three metres high.</span></p>
<p><span>The collapse could potentially weaken three million tonnes of rock further upslope, resulting in even larger landslides and waves of up to five metres high.</span></p>
<p><span>"The danger is that a tsunami would only take a few minutes to travel from Dominica to Guadeloupe — giving very little time for evacuation of coastal areas," Richard Teeuw, a geologist from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, told SciDev.Net. </span></p>
<p><span>Teeuw, who led the study, says his team made their discovery when looking at three-dimensional images from Google Earth. They saw visible tension cracks caused by impact waves wearing away the volcano. By observing these they conclude that an earthquake of magnitude of 7–8 could trigger a collapse. </span></p>
<p><span>Historically quakes of this strength hit northern Dominica around once every century, Teeuw explained, but the island has experienced two significant earthquakes of similar magnitude in the last ten years.</span></p>
<p><span>"It’s not a case of if this landslide and tsunami will happen, but when … It could happen in a hundred years or it could happen next week," Teeuw said in a press release. </span></p>
<p><span>However, Alan L. Smith, of the Department of Geology at California State University, told SciDev.Net that although this "is definitely a possible scenario" he believes the landslide "would most probably not enter the sea as a compact block but as a mass of unconsolidated fragments and over a longer time, thus somewhat diluting the effect". </span></p>
<p><span>Christopher Kilburn, a researcher at the UK-based Aon-Benfield University College London Hazard Research Centre, told SciDev.Net: </span>"<span>Fortunately, the Portsmouth team have identified the unstable slope before it has collapsed … It may be possible to establish a monitoring network to check the degree of instability and when a collapse is most likely to occur. It is also important that a tsunami warning system is established along the exposed coastlines of Dominica and neighbouring islands."</span></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/study-reveals-tsunami-hazard-to-guadeloupe/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/study-reveals-tsunami-hazard-to-guadeloupe/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

The Caribbean island of Guadeloupe may be under threat from a tsunami, and inhabitants will have little warning if it happens, scientists have discovered.

A million-tonne chunk of rock from the northern side of the Morne aux Diables (Devils’ Peak) volcano on the nearby island of Dominica could collapse into the sea, unleashing tsunami waves of up to three metres high.

The collapse could potentially weaken three million tonnes of rock further upslope, resulting in even larger landslides and waves of up to five metres high.

"The danger is that a tsunami would only take a few minutes to travel from Dominica to Guadeloupe — giving very little time for evacuation of coastal areas," Richard Teeuw, a geologist from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, told SciDev.Net.

Teeuw, who led the study, says his team made their discovery when looking at three-dimensional images from Google Earth. They saw visible tension cracks caused by impact waves wearing away the volcano. By observing these they conclude that an earthquake of magnitude of 7–8 could trigger a collapse.

Historically quakes of this strength hit northern Dominica around once every century, Teeuw explained, but the island has experienced two significant earthquakes of similar magnitude in the last ten years.

"It’s not a case of if this landslide and tsunami will happen, but when … It could happen in a hundred years or it could happen next week," Teeuw said in a press release.

However, Alan L. Smith, of the Department of Geology at California State University, told SciDev.Net that although this "is definitely a possible scenario" he believes the landslide "would most probably not enter the sea as a compact block but as a mass of unconsolidated fragments and over a longer time, thus somewhat diluting the effect".

Christopher Kilburn, a researcher at the UK-based Aon-Benfield University College London Hazard Research Centre, told SciDev.Net: "Fortunately, the Portsmouth team have identified the unstable slope before it has collapsed … It may be possible to establish a monitoring network to check the degree of instability and when a collapse is most likely to occur. It is also important that a tsunami warning system is established along the exposed coastlines of Dominica and neighbouring islands."