Almost 60,000 years ago , a massive underwater avalanche took place just off the seacoast of Northwest Africa . Initially , about 1.5 cubic kilometers ( 0.36 cubic miles ) of sediments rolled down across the Agadir Canyon , one of the largest in the world . As this deposit rolled down across the 450 kilometers ( 280 mile ) of the submarine sandwich canon , it turn a hundred - fold eventually moving 162 cubic kilometers ( 38.9 cubic knot ) of material . This was the Bed 5 event .
When it comes to sub landslides , there have been large ace – the Storegga Slides , for example , shifted a total bulk over 20 time that of the Bed 5 upshot . But something interesting about this especial hero avalanche is that it move it all in one go . While others might take place in stages or complect events , the Bed 5 outcome had all that mass in one go .
“ The Bed 5 result was a hero sandwich landslide that essentially went from being a heavy coherent mass into a more diluted sediment catamenia that moved down through that canyon and then down through the submarine basin that were out from that canyon essentially along the abyssal sea floor,”Dr James Hunt , a investigator at the National Oceanography Centre , UK , told IFLScience .
The case carved a way of life tens of meters deep and many kilometers wide , displacing more and more mass . Theextreme erosionthat lead to the incredible bulking is just one of the many exciting research done on this landslip . It is also gainsay how torpedo landslides are expected to act – like a turbulent liquid or like a mudslide of dust .
“ In damage of how these landslides would terminate up bank on the seafloor , there are two schools of thought : One , it deposits by fluid Sturm und Drang or 2d it is like debris flow . What we ’ve actually seen here in Bed 5 is that these stream can transition between the two . When we look at smooth dynamic , but that fluid dynamic physical process is very smooth itself , ” Dr Hunt excuse to IFLScience .
issue such as Bed 5 do n’t happen oftentimes – they are potential to come about once in a 50,000 - year interval . They do not happen willy - nilly : they require sediment accrual and researchers believe that it is in the periods between an ice eld and the thaw of the planet that these happen .
The consequence of such an tremendous landslide is likely to be a tsunami , but researchers are unsure of its magnitude . Crucial to modeling tsunami magnitude is the speed of the landslide , but also the intensity of water moving . Something falling into the water , such as a landslide from a volcanic island into the ocean , might have a bigger moment than a big submarine landslide that is already under the undulation .
“ A landslip that goes from subaerial , like from a volcanic island , into the water bring forth a lot more impulse , a stack more power that displaces that water . A landside like Bed 5 is already . pigboat so it just displaces the piddle in front of it rather than that replace its volume , ” Dr Hunt told IFLScience .
There is a luck more to strike about these tremendous events that take stead under the ocean . While Bed 5 is a large event , submarine landslides of smaller dimensions do occur and it is important to sympathize them . In the last two decennary alone , grinder telecom line have become damaged from the event of submarine landslides like those off the seacoast ofTaiwan in 2006 . Understanding Bed 5 and Storrega is not just about the major planet ’s extreme events . It is very much about what rifle on today .
