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Noke Lieu
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tsunami at ice cap
« on: Jan 11th, 2005, 2:39pm » |
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It might be a bit bad taste at the moment- apologies.
So, what would happen if a tsunami was to hit the antarctic?
Got lots of scenarios in my head, am interested to find out what you lot think.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 11th, 2005, 3:57pm by Noke Lieu » |
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towr
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Re: tsunami at ice cap
« Reply #1 on: Jan 11th, 2005, 2:58pm » |
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I doubt it would do much. Depends on where it hits also. Probably some sheets of sea-ice would break off. Maybe some pinguins get swept into sea, but they can swim.
Now if on the other hand you'd let the all ice of the antarctic slide into the sea all at once, now that'd give a big tsunami. (And it would leave the see level reason by dozens or hundreds of meters worldwide even after the waves settled)
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Noke Lieu
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Re: tsunami at ice cap
« Reply #2 on: Jan 11th, 2005, 4:05pm » |
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Sure- virtually no loss of human life.
But am wondering what happens to the wave.
The wave would be compressed between the sheet and the sea bed. By the time the sea is shallow enough to really impact on the wave shape, the ice is seriously thick.
and if its sea ice that breaks off, then it doesn't make much difference to the sea level, ice floating and all that. Its the land locked stuff, like glaciers etc.
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Icarus
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Re: tsunami at ice cap
« Reply #3 on: Jan 11th, 2005, 4:49pm » |
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Actually, once of the worst of the nightmare global-warming scenarios is the collapse of the Ross and Ronne Ice Shelves. If they go, ocean levels will raise enough to inundate many of the world's largest cities.
But the question of tsunamis hitting the Antartic coast is easily answered from experience. The recent one in the Indian Ocean almost certainly must have struck south as well. But since no one lives there, there was no great disaster. Of course, only the relatively small Amery ice shelf borders the Indian Ocean, and it probably wasn't affected greatly by the tsunami.
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SWF
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Re: tsunami at ice cap
« Reply #4 on: Jan 11th, 2005, 8:10pm » |
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A couple of weeks ago I was canoeing in a lake that in places still had a thin layer of ice. I sent some waves across the water into the ice (waves about 3 inches in amplitude) to see what would happen. The waves went under the ice and the flexing caused the ice sheet to fracture with lots of noise, but no pieces of ice broke off.
I would guess that at the edge of an ice shelf, the water would still be pretty deep so the wave amplitude would be relatively small. The wave would go under the ice and be weakened slightly the ice on the surface. That would get more interesting as it approached shallow water. Could be quite a large pressure under the ice.
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TenaliRaman
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Re: tsunami at ice cap
« Reply #5 on: Jan 12th, 2005, 6:58am » |
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If we suppose that the ice breaks (tho not so easily) under the tsunami, wouldnt it act like a buffer? thereby decreasing the intensity of the tsunami thereafter?
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| « Last Edit: Jan 12th, 2005, 7:00am by TenaliRaman » |
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