Abstract
Giant landslides on volcanic islands represent the largest formations which can be created in a single geological moment. Such landslides are distributed across the globe and have attracted a significant amount of research interest. Yet, no coherent attempts have been made to rationalise this information into a single online resource. This report summarises information about the structure of the recently created database of giant landslides on volcanic islands and presents some observations regarding the uncertainties inherent in the inventories. The database is being prepared over a 3-year period: the first year of the project has focused on rationalising information about giant landslides around the Atlantic Ocean while the second and third years will focus on rationalising information about such landslides from the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, respectively. Using this database, it should be possible to interrogate the spatial and temporal patterns of land sliding and landslide reactivation as well as to better assess the hazard and potential risks posed by giant landslides on volcanic islands. It will be particularly interesting to see if any evidence can be found for global triggers, such as eustatic or climatic changes, instead of the more commonly expounded local triggers. Ultimately, it is hoped that the database will benefit both the geoscientific community and those agencies responsible for civil defence. This work is part of the activities of the International Consortium on Landslides, namely its International Programme on Landslides (Project n. 212). The database is available from the giant landslides project webpage: https://www.irsm.cas.cz/ext/giantlandslides.
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Funding
Development of the giant landslides on oceanic island volcanoes database is supported by the Czech Science Foundation (CSF Project GJ16-12227Y), and the conceptual development research organization of the Institute of Rock Structure & Mechanics CAS (RVO 67985891).
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Blahut, J., Klimeš, J., Rowberry, M. et al. Database of giant landslides on volcanic islands—first results from the Atlantic Ocean. Landslides 15, 823–827 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-018-0967-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-018-0967-3