TSUNAMI-CH Phase 2

Tsunamis do not only happen in oceans, but they do also occur in lakes. As part of an interdisciplinary project entitled “Lake Tsunamis: Causes, Consequences and Hazard” (2017-2021), a workflow for the assessment of the tsunami potential on peri-alpine lakes was developed. The workflow focuses on the tsunami generation by subaqueous mass movements. However, it has been documented that delta failures have caused considerable tsunamis on peri-alpine lakes. So far, delta failures have been widely neglected in the assessment of lake tsunamis; mainly as the triggering and failure mechanisms have not been investigated in detail, and as important parameters such as the thickness and failure volumes are not known.
TSUNAMI-CH Phase 2 aims at extending the workflow for the assessment of the lake tsunami hazard by including delta failures. In addition,  subaerial mass movements are also included as triggers of tsunamis in the workflow. The project, which is funded by the Federal Office for the Environment, consists of 3 work packages (WPs), which are conducted at SED (“WP wave simulation” and “WP synthesis”) and the University of Bern (“WP delta”), in collaboration with the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW).

WP delta will characterize various deltas in Swiss peri-alpine lakes, and identify the ones that are susceptible to failure. The resulting geodatabase will store various delta parameters that are relevant for estimating the tsunami potential.

WP wave simulation extends the workflow for the modelling of the tsunami generation, propagation and inundation that was developed in the preceding project. Numerical modelling is conducted with BASEMENT, a freeware simulation tool for hydro- and morphodynamic modelling developed at VAW.

WP Synthesis will document the comprehensive workflow for the assessment of the tsunami hazard.