Alaska is in danger
Alaska is in danger?
Yes, the world is likely to be expecting another tsunami soon.
Selon Wikipedia, a glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries.
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| Glacier |
On May 14/2020, a team of climatologists from various universities across the United States sent a letter to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources-ADNR warning of the possibility of an impending devastating tsunami in Prince William Fjord, Alaska.
Scientists attribute this, according to the report published on the "Science Alert" website on October 19, to landslides in the rocks, which lose their stability with the melting of glaciers expected in the next two decades. Scientists believe that these gradual collapses could trigger a devastating tsunami in the next 12 months.
Glacial retreat.
Receding glaciers in Prince William Sound along the southern coast of Alaska appears to be negatively impacting the mountain slopes of Barry Arm Sound, about 97 kilometers (east of Anchorage), which is the largest city in Alaska.
Analysis by satellite imagery indicates the appearance of a rock scar in the plateaus of the Bari Strait; Due to the retreat of the Bari Glacier, which is undergoing continuous melting. This indicates an already slow gradual landslide over this strait, and scientists fear that any sudden development of this landslide could have dire consequences.
The team relied in their study on measuring the height of sediment above water, the size of the land subject to landslide, and the slope angle of the slope, and found that 'such a collapse would cause a collapse 16 times the size. and 11 times more gravity than the landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. This then caused the longest tsunami wave in modern times.
Climate change and tsunami.
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| Glacier melt |
Scientists believe that the speed of landslides on slopes can be affected by many factors such as heavy or prolonged rains, in addition to earthquakes which can cause cracks.
The hot weather is the most important factor among them, as it leads to the melting of the ice, causing the slopes to lose balance, and public opinion agrees that the rate of retreat of the glaciers increases the possibility of a greater number of cases of the dramatic collapse of slopes.
Several organizations, including the Alaska Natural Resources Department, the National Oceanic, and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Geological Survey, continuously monitor developments in Prince William Sound to track the evolution of the Barry Glacier, with the goal of updating constantly update forecasts on the consequences that could result from the expected destructive tsunami.
Preliminary modeling in the May report, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, indicates an expectation of a sudden major landslide resulting in an estimated tsunami hundreds of feet along the coastline, which will spread through Prince William Sound and the bays. . And the distant straits.
Finally, it can be said that the repercussions of the continued melting and relatively rapid retreat of glaciers in the era of climate change could cause similar types of landslides, and thus the occurrence of tsunamis in many other places of the world, not just in Alaska.