1979 Nice tsunami

The Nice tsunami of 1979 came on October 16. Two tsunamis struck the coast near Nice, accompanied by a landslide at the Nice Airport, and an aseismic submarine landslide. The two waves struck the coast between the Italian border and the town of Antibes (60 miles; 96 km).[1] They reached 3 m high near Nice and 3.5 m[2] at La Salis (Antibes) and decreased in amplitude from there.

Causes

The origin of these events has been a subject of academic and judicial debate.[3] One hypothesis said that it was the landslide at the Nice airport; while the other stated that it was an underwater landslide.[4]

A 0.15 km3[5] slide took place off Nice airport while constructing the fill of the new airport, perhaps as a consequence of this work. This landslide would have caused the first tsunami. The material from this slide could have caused a submarine slide that would have caused the second tsunami.[4]

In the second hypothesis, the major natural submarine landslide (~8.7 km2) that occurred offshore Nice caused a tsunami which would have caused a landslide of the fill of the new airport. This landslide caused another tsunami.[4]

Consequences

Casualty estimates range between 8[2] and 23.[6] At the construction site, the collapsing fill killed seven people.[2]

The tsunamis inundated a 20-mile section of the coast.[7] The water travelled up to 150 m inland.[2] Eleven people were swept away in Nice and one in Antibes.[1] The airport works were finished, but this event forestalled the construction of a new port for Nice.

References
  1. Allaby, M. (2004). A Chronology of Weather. Infobase Publishing.
  2. Sahal, Alexandre; Lemahieu, Anne (2010). "The 1979 nice airport tsunami: mapping of the flood in Antibes". Natural Hazards. 56 (3): 833–840. doi:10.1007/s11069-010-9594-6. ISSN 0921-030X. S2CID 128751536.
  3. Lee, Homa J.; Locat, Jacques; Desgagns, Priscilla; Parsons, Jeffrey D.; McAdoo, Brian G.; Orange, Daniel L.; Puig, Pere; Wong, Florence L.; Dartnell, Peter; Boulanger, Eric (2007). "Submarine Mass Movements on Continental Margins". Continental Margin Sedimentation. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp. 213–274. doi:10.1002/9781444304398.ch5. ISBN 978-1-4443-0439-8.
  4. Seed, H. B. (1988). The landslide at the Port of Nice on October 16, 1979. Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California.
  5. Nisbet, Euan G.; Piper, David J. W. (1998). "Giant submarine landslides". Nature. 392 (6674): 329–330. Bibcode:1998Natur.392..329N. doi:10.1038/32765. ISSN 0028-0836.
  6. Rana, S. V. S. (2007). Essentials of ecology and environmental science. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
  7. Dudley, W. C., & Lee, M. (1998). Tsunami!. University of Hawaii Press.

43.6464°N 7.2157°E / 43.6464; 7.2157

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