A massive underwater landslide that could have triggered a towering tsunami about 300,000 years ago has been discovered in the depths of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, scientists said yesterday.
The ancient landslide, likely caused by a strong earthquake that could have generated a 27m-high tsunami was, discovered unexpectedly by researchers conducting 3D mapping of the seafloor around the world’s biggest reef.
Scientists had already located eight undersea hills “in the middle of nowhere” and found the crater while piecing together the contours of the nearby territory, said Robin Beaman of James Cook University, one of the coauthors of a study published in the Marine Geology journal.
“There’s this huge chunk taken out of the continental slope... about 20km-long has collapsed and about 8km-deep, so an indent on that sort of scale,” he said.
The landslide, which was discovered about 75km off the Queensland State coast, was 32 cubic kilometers.
Scientists estimated the age of the landslide by sampling cold-water corals on one of the hills, also called knolls, at a depth of 1.17km. The oldest fossil corals were about 302,000 years old.
While such a large undersea landslide could have triggered a major tsunami, Beaman said the reef would have acted as a breakwater to reduce its impact.
Tsunamis generated by such landslides also caused “very localized” impact, with waves dropping off quickly, he added.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s best-known natural wonders and stretches more than 2,300km along the northeastern coast.
However, while much of the seafloor has been mapped in 3D, the reef’s vast size means that its deeper parts have barely been explored.
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