Landslide-Generated Tsunami

NSF natural hazards group highlights Fritz’s unique volcanic landslide generator

The volcanic tsunami generator simulates a volcanic eruption by “punching” through the water’s surface. Professor Hermann Fritz built this one-of-a-kind setup and conducted a series of experiments to better understand tsunamis created by eruptions of underwater volcanoes. (Photo: Yibin Liu)

Last summer, Hermann Fritz was watching a miniature volcano erupt over and over again. The idea was to generate tsunamis from the eruption or a resulting landslide to see how these rare events differ from their more common earthquake-generated cousins.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

LISTEN: Studying volcano eruptions deep underwater with Hermann Fritz

Hermann Fritz helping install the Volcanic Tsunami Generator at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University earlier this summer. (Photo: Angela Del Rosario / Courtesy: Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure)

Professor Hermann Fritz has spent the summer traveling between Atlanta and Corvallis, Oregon, building a new one-of-a-kind tool for his landslide research.

Friday, August 17, 2018

After recon trip, researchers say Greenland tsunami in June reached 300 feet high

University of Oregon volcanologist Thomas Giachetti stands with an iceberg washed ashore by a landslide-generated tsunami in Greenland in June. (Photo: Hermann Fritz)

A massive June landslide in Greenland spawned a tsunami that shattered chunks of a glacier and sent water more than 90 meters (300 feet) up the sides of a fjord. That preliminary data comes from Georgia Tech Professor Hermann Fritz and a reconnaissance team that has just returned from a trip to the site of the landslide and tsunami to collect important perishable data about the disaster.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Understanding landslide-generated tsunamis — and predicting their impact

A simulated landslide splashes into a wave basin at Oregon State University.

Scientists better understand the formation of rare but deadly kinds of tsunamis as a result of first-of-their-kind experiments by two Georgia Tech researchers.

Monday, June 27, 2016
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