Published

Geophysics

Anatomy of strike-slip fault tsunami genesis

Published on - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Authors: Ahmed Elbanna, Mohamed Abdelmeguid, Xiao Ma, Faisal Amlani, Harsha Bhat, Costas Synolakis, Ares Rosakis

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Significance Our work has uncovered unexpected potential for strike-slip faults to generate devastating tsunamis, without necessarily triggering coseismic underwater landslides or slumps with their associated wave generation. This is a previously unrecognized hazard for coastal cities worldwide. The risk is higher for supershear earthquakes, as in the 1999 Izmit and the 2018 Palu events, which may be the case for an earthquake rupturing the northern segment of the San Andreas Fault.