A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.
The Vajont Dam is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of 262 m (860 ft). It is in the valley of the Vajont River under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, 100 km (62 mi) north of Venice.
In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water. During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes. Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars. Landslides, lahars, and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes, which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded. Lakes also form behind glacial moraines or ice dams, which can collapse and create outburst floods.
Quake Lake is a lake in the western United States, on the Madison River in southwestern Montana. It was created after an earthquake struck on August 17, 1959, with 28 fatalities. Northwest of West Yellowstone, Quake Lake is six miles (10 km) in length with a maximum depth of 125 feet (38 m).
A reservoir is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine. Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the ice, or massive displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it.
The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake occurred in the western United States on August 17 at 11:37 pm (MST) in southwestern Montana.
A volcanic dam is a type of natural dam produced directly or indirectly by volcanism, which holds or temporarily restricts the flow of surface water in existing streams, like a man-made dam. There are two main types of volcanic dams, those created by the flow of molten lava, and those created by the primary or secondary deposition of pyroclastic material and debris. This classification generally excludes other, often larger and longer lived dam-type geologic features, separately termed crater lakes, although these volcanic centers may be associated with the source of material for volcanic dams, and the lowest portion of its confining rim may be considered as such a dam, especially if the lake level within the crater is relatively high.
Red Lake is a natural dam lake in Harghita County, Romania. It is located in the Hășmaș Mountains, on the upper course of the Bicaz River, and lies at the foot of the Hășmașul Mare Peak, near the Bicaz Gorge, at a distance of 26 km (16 mi) from Gheorgheni and 30 km (19 mi) from Bicaz.
Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County is a county under the jurisdiction of Mianyang City in northern Sichuan province, China. It is located in an ethnically diverse mountainous region of Sichuan. Its Chinese name literally means "North" (bei) "River" (chuan). Its new county seat is located at Yongchang after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Tangjiashan Lake is a landslide dam-created lake on the Jian River, which was formed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its name comes from the nearby mountain Tangjiashan. On May 24, 2008, the water level rose by 2 metres in a single day, reaching a depth of 23 metres (75 ft), just 29 metres (95 ft) below the barrier level. On June 9, 2008, more than 250,000 people had been evacuated from Mianyang in anticipation of the Tangjiashan Lake dam bursting.
The 1911 Sarez earthquake occurred at 18:41 UTC on 18 February in the central Pamir Mountains in the Rushon District of eastern Tajikistan. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 on the surface wave magnitude scale and a maximum felt intensity of about IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. It triggered a massive landslide, blocking the Murghab River and forming the Usoi Dam, the tallest dam in the world, creating Sarez Lake. The earthquake and related landslides destroyed many buildings and killed about 100 people.
An earthquake occurred on 1 June 1786 in and around Kangding, in what is now China's Sichuan province. It had an estimated magnitude of about 7.75 and a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The initial quake killed 435 people. After an aftershock ten days later, a further 100,000 died when a landslide dam collapsed across the Dadu river.
The 2010 Mount Meager landslide was a large catastrophic debris avalanche that occurred in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, on August 6 at 3:27 a.m. PDT (UTC-7). More than 45,000,000 m3 (1.6×109 cu ft) of debris slid down Mount Meager, temporarily blocking Meager Creek and destroying local bridges, roads and equipment. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and one of over 20 landslides to have occurred from the Mount Meager massif in the last 10,000 years.
Mount Meager is a mountain in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It represents the second highest peak of the Mount Meager massif, a group of coalescent stratovolcanoes in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt.
The 1847 Zenkoji earthquake occurred at about 21:30 local time on 8 May at Nagano, Japan. It had a magnitude of 7.4 on the surface wave magnitude scale. It caused the destruction of many houses in Nagano and at least 8,600 people were killed. The earthquake triggered many landslides, the largest of which dammed the Sai River. 19 days later, the failure of this earthquake dam caused a flood that destroyed many more houses and killed 35 people.
The 1993 Finisterre Range earthquakes began on October 13 with a Mw 6.9 mainshock, followed by Mw 6.5 and 6.7 earthquakes. These earthquakes struck beneath the Finisterre Range, north of Markham Valley in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The complex earthquake sequence seriously damaged many villages in the rural Eastern Papua New Guinea region, generating landslides and killing at least 60 people.
The 1840 Ahora earthquake occurred on 2 July at 16:00 local time, affecting Ağrı Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of present-day Turkey and Armenia. The earthquake had an epicenter near Mount Ararat, where it triggered an eruption and caused a landslide that destroyed villages. A total of 10,000 people were killed by the earthquake and its damaging aftershocks. Earthquake catalogs place the surface-wave magnitude at Ms 7.4 and maximum Modified Mercalli intensity scale assigned IX (Violent).
The area of Oeschinen Lake and Kander river valley in Switzerland have been subject of multiple large landslides during the Holocene. Both the number and timing of landslides is controversial, with the most recent estimates stating that the large Kander landslide occurred about 3,210 years ago and the smaller Oeschinen Lake landslide 2,300 years ago. Both may have been caused by earthquakes, and the latter landslide generated the Oeschinen Lake. More recent landslides have occurred, and unstable rock masses occur in the landslide area.
