A Database on Submarine Landslides
of the Mediterranean Sea
A. Camerlenghi, R. Urgeles, and L. Fantoni
Abstract Submarine landslides are ubiquitous along the continental margins of
the Mediterranean basin and occur on tectonically-dominated margins as well as on
passive margins and volcanic island flanks. Tectonically quiet zones seem to have
the highest density of known events. Most landslides occur as long run-out distance
debris flows, but slumps and deep-seated failures are also relatively common. In
abyssal plains the distal product of massive failures is recorded as large megaturbidites, while on volcanic islands the dominant failure type is flank-collapse with
development of debris avalanches. Submarine landslides, excluding megaturbidites,
appear to occur in all water depths between the coastline and about 2000 m. Most
landslides occupy areas ranging from a few to about 600 km2 and volumes up to
220 km3. Abyssal plain megaturbidites can attain 60,000 km2 and 1,000 km3. The
landslides headwall height are clustered around two modes: 0 to 40 m for relatively
small landslides and 160 to 200 m for the largest ones. Most recorded submarine
landslides are relatively young in age and several events appear to group near the
Pleistocene to Holocene transition.
Keywords Submarine landslide • geohazard • Mediterranean • megaturbidite
• mass wasting • Pleistocene • Holocene
A. Camerlenghi ()
ICREA, Istitució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain;
Departament d’Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Facultat de Geologia,
Universitat de Barcelona, C/Martí i Franquès, s/n, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: acamerlenghi@ub.edu
R. Urgeles
Departament d’Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Facultat de Geologia,
Universitat de Barcelona, C/Martí i Franquès, s/n, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: urgeles@ub.edu
L. Fantoni
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via S. Eufemia,
19, 41100 Modena, Italy
e-mail: laura.fantoni@unimore.it
D.C. Mosher et al. (eds.), Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences,
Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, Vol 28,
© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2010
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A. Camerlenghi et al.
Introduction
The Mediterranean basin is a miniature ocean that has been often called a “natural
geological laboratory” because of its diversity in tectonic and sedimentary environments (Fig. 1). The basin is limited by different margin types: active margins such
as the incipient continental collision in the eastern Mediterranean; transcurrent
tectonic margins, such as the Levant margin; young rifted margins in the three
back-arc basins (Aegean, Tyrrhenian and Alboran) and in the Sicily Channel; older
rifted (passive) margins bounding the Algero Provençal Sea; and passive margins
re-activated by tectonic compression (the African margin from Tunisia to Morocco).
Although some of the Mediterranean margins are tectonically active (Fig. 2), there
are other areas considered as tectonically inactive based on the instrumental record
(the Balearic promontory, the Gulf of Valencia, the Sardinia and Corsica margins,
and the African Margin from Libya to Egypt).
The Mediterranean basin includes major siliciclastic sedimentary wedges fed by
the Nile, Rhone, Ebro and Po rivers, as well as sediment starved margins (Balearic,
West Corsica and Sardinia, Cyprus, Cyrenaica).
The Mediterranean coastline is very densely populated, totalling 160 million
inhabitants sharing 46,000 km of coastline. As World’s leading holiday destination,
the area receives up to 30% of global tourism and an average of 135 million visitors
annually (EEA 2005). When compared to other oceanic basins, the Mediterranean
is more vulnerable to marine geohazards due not only to the high density of coastal
population, but also to its small dimensions. The latter results in close proximity
between tsunami sources (induced by either a submarine landslide or co-seismic
seafloor displacement) and impact areas. During the Holocene (<10,000 years),
Fig. 1 Tectonic lineaments of the Mediterranean. Modified after Camerlenghi and Pini (2009)
A Database on Submarine Landslides of the Mediterranean Sea
0
10W
10E
20E
505
30E
40E
50N
45N
40N
35N
30N
Fig. 2 Map of instrumentally recorded seismicity shallower than 50 km in the Mediterranean
region. From Vannucci et al. (2004) (permission requested from the publisher). ISC: International
Seismological Centre; Mw: Moment Magnitude. Blue bands: Main active deformation areas
there is evidence that tsunamis have been common in the Mediterranean basin, and
that their consequences have caused severe damage to ancient coastal settlements
of the Levant margin, Cyprus and the Hellenic Arc (e.g. Salamon et al. 2007;
Papadopoulos and Fokaefs 2005).
With the aim to understand the causes of the sediment mass movements identified in recent years in the sedimentary record of the Mediterranean continental
margins, we have undertaken a compilation of information from the scientific literature into a GIS based framework. This work provides a first step towards the
analysis of geohazard from submarine landslides (e.g. Morgan et al. 2009;
Camerlenghi et al. 2007) in the Mediterranean basin. Due to incomplete seafloor
mapping, some information is inevitably missing and the database should be considered as in progress. However, the information gathered allows us to draw some
preliminary conclusions on the occurrence of submarine landslides in relation to
geological setting and sedimentary regime.
2
Methods
Information on submarine landslides reported in published research articles was
entered in a geographically referenced framework using ArcGIS 9.2. For each landslide the following parameters were entered into the database: boundaries of scar
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and deposit digitized from scanned or captured figures; name; geographic position;
geological setting (e.g. strike slip margin, passive margin); area and volume (defined
in the literature and/or calculated); thickness of the sedimentary deposit; height of
the headwall; water depth of top and bottom of the headwall; typology; age; recurrence time (if any); estimated trigger mechanism; associated tsunamigenesis; availability of geotechnical information; and finally one or more reference articles.
For typology, we selected the following terms according to the terminology in
the original manuscripts: Debris Avalanche; debris flow; deep-seated failure (when
recognized mainly in deep penetration seismic profiles rather than bathymetric
maps); glide; gravitational collapse; mass failure; mass transport; mass wasting;
megaturbidite; slide; slump. Such terms often describe similar deposits. For the
time being we have not modified the terminology. It is obvious that a unified terminology is needed for correct understanding and comparison of sedimentary deposits
originated from submarine sediment mass transport. Slide scars (upper limit of the
slide headwall) have been digitized as polylines. Deposits have been digitized as
polygons. Where the volume of the deposit is not reported by authors, an approximate volume has been calculated from the minimum thickness in seismic profiles.
We are in the process of implementing the database and making it available online. For any query in the meantime, please contact the authors.
Figure 3 shows all submarine landslides of the data set superimposed on the
bathymetric map of the Mediterranean sea. Summary plots of the main characteristics of the slides are displayed in Fig. 4. With an area less than 400 km2, and a
volume less than 100 km3, the majority of the submarine landslides of the
Mediterranean basin are relatively small in size, at least compared to the huge submarine landslides of the North Atlantic (e.g. Hühnerbach et al. 2004). Most of the
slides are classified by authors as debris flow deposits or slumps, with a considerable number being classified generically as deep seated failure. However, the type
of mass transport deposit that covers the largest area of seafloor is that of megaturbidites, covering an area exceeding 130,000 km2 compared to a nearly 40,000 km2
covered by all other deposits together. It must be noted that turbidites other than
megaturbidites (see for comparison Cita et al. 1984a) have not been taken into
account in this analysis.
3
Results
Most of the landslides originate on the mid-upper continental slope, in water depths
generally shallower than 1,000 m and generate headwalls mostly less than 40 m
high. However, there is also a cluster of the largest landslides with headwalls height
ranging from 160 to 200 m (Fig. 4).
According to the authors whose published work has been used for this compilation, about one quarter of the landslides are believed to be recurrent events in the
geological record. Only 15% of the landslides are believed to have caused a
tsunami.
Fig. 3 Display of all the submarine landslides of the database superimposed to the shaded relief map of the bathymetry (IOC, IHO and BODC 2003; Medimap
Group et al. 2008)
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Fig. 4 Statistical distribution of significant parameters of submarine landslides in the Mediterr
anean basin
3.1
Landslides Distribution with Respect to Geo-tectonic
Environment
Submarine landslides occur in very different geological settings of the Mediterranean
continental margins. Noticeable is the density of known events on the margins of
the Balearic promontory in the Western Mediterranean (e.g. Lastras et al. 2004;
2006), which is one of the instrumentally aseismic regions (Vannucci et al. 2004)
and where sedimentation is characterized by low-rate settling of carbonate pelagic
particles (Canals and Ballesteros 1997). In contrast, the submarine landslides of the
Nile deep sea fan (e.g. Garziglia et al. 2008), also located in a tectonically quiet
region, occur in a Plio-Quaternary sedimentary succession exceeding 2,000 m in
thickness (Loncke et al. 2002) whose sedimentary architecture is affected by
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Miocene reactivation of the Suez-Red Sea Rift system (Mascle et al. 2000) and by
thin-skinned gravity gliding and spreading above the Messinian salt layer (Gaullier
et al. 2000; Loncke et al. 2006). In the case of the Ebro Margin (Casas et al. 2003;
Lastras et al. 2002) and the Rhone deep sea fan (Droz et al. 2006), both considered
as seismically quiet zones based on the instrumental record, recurrent mass wasting
throughout the history of sediment accretion is linked to over-steepening and reduction of shear strength induced by differential compaction and associated faulting
(e.g. Urgeles et al. 2006).
The tectonically active Levant margin experienced recurrent episodes of largescale failure associated with Plio-Quaternary faults (e.g. Almagor and Wiseman
1997), either within a margin-parallel mega-shear zone (e.g. Neev et al. 1982),
subduction reactivated by strike-slip faulting (Tapponnier 2004), or as a consequence of basinwards flow of Messinian salt (Frey-Martinez et al. 2005).
One intriguing aspect is the lack of evidence for modern submarine slides at
the deformation front of the Calabrian and Mediterranean ridges accretionary
wedges. The reason must be found in a combination of geo-tectonic factors
(Camerlenghi and Pini 2009): (1) low taper angle (as low as 1°) of the accretionary prisms detaching over the ductile Messinian halite as opposed to 8–12°
angle of frictional wedges, (2) low hemipelagic sedimentation rate, and (3) the
barrier to deeply seated fluid migration imposed by the 3,000 m or thicker
Messinian halite layer below the eastern Mediterranean foredeeps (Costa et al.
2004).
Conversely, there are large volume mass transport deposits in the Gela basin
(offshore Sicily) which is under present-day salt-free deformation within the foredeep
of the Maghrebian fold-and-thrust belt. One of the most extensive mass transport
deposits is the 600 ka b.p. Gela submarine slide complex, up to 700 m thick, 30 km
long and 90 km wide (Di Stefano et al. 1993; Trincardi and Argnani 1990). The NE
portion of Gela basin is also affected by multiple slope failures originated during
the late-Quaternary (Minisini et al. 2007).
Submarine landslides from volcanic flank collapse are presently not fully represented in the database, because the majority of these landslides originate above
sealevel. The database will be implemented for inclusions of such landslides.
A final remark is about the several late Pleistocene megaturbidites found at shallow depth in the main abyssal plains of the Mediterranean basin: the Herodotus
basin Megaturbidite (HBM, at least 20 m thick, lateral extent of 40,000 km2 and a
volume of approximately 400 km3) (Rothwell et al. 2000; Reeder et al. 2000); The
“Augias Megaturbidite”, or “Homogenite” underlain by two other 10–35 m thick
megaturbidites in the Ionian Abyssal Plain (e.g. Rebesco et al. 2000; Hieke 2000);
and the 8–10 m thick megaturbidite of the Balearic abyssal plain (e.g. Rothwell
et al. 2000; 1998; Cita et al. 1984b). These megaturbidites are thought to reflect
major catastrophic collapses of the adjacent continental margins. Apart form the
possible link to the Santorini Volcanic caldera collapse put forth for the
“Homogenite”, there is no available information on the submarine landslide from
which these megaturbidites originated.
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Fig. 5 Most possible youngest age spectrum of submarine landslides in the Mediterranean basin
compared with the mean eustatic sea level from Pillans et al. (1998)
3.2
Age
Not all the submarine landslides in the database are supported by accurate dating
information. Based on the failure age bracket provided in the literature, we have
assigned a youngest possible age to each landslide. The resulting age spectrum
(Fig. 5) indicates clearly that the vast majority of the landslides have occurred
between 20 and 10 ka b.p., and therefore the coincidence with the last major global
climatic change, corresponding to the deglaciation following the last glacial
maximum, is striking.
4
Global Implications and Conclusions
The database shows unequivocally that submarine landslides are common on
Mediterranean continental margins that are seismically inactive. This observation
should be used to resolve the present-day paradigm often used in the scientific
literature, that earthquakes are the main triggers for large submarine landslides (e.g.
Masson et al. 2006; Canals et al. 2004; Locat and Lee 2002).
It is known that there are fewer large failures along present-day tectonically active
margins (e.g. the Oregon margin, McAdoo and Watts 2004), than along passive
continental margins (e.g. ten Brink et al. 2008). Despite larger magnitude earthquakes,
the slopes of accretionary complexes and margins undergoing tectonic erosion in many
places do not fail because the sediments are over-consolidated. The shear resistance
A Database on Submarine Landslides of the Mediterranean Sea
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is generally higher in these sediments than in the generally under-consolidated
sediments of large deep sea fans building up at passive continental margins
(Camerlenghi and Pini 2009). The sediment mass movement at active margins occurs
primarily in the form of cohesive failure (blocky landslides and slumps) producing
high headwalls and short run-out distance on steeper slope with respect to passive
margins. Despite being relatively small, these submarine landslides are indeed the
ones with the higher tsunamigenic potential (McAdoo and Watts 2004).
The correlation of many of the Mediterranean submarine landslides with the
last deglaciation appears to support similar observations from the North Atlantic
(Lee 2008; ten Brink et al. 2008; Maslin et al. 2004; Owen et al. 2007) and may
be viewed as in contrast with the classical view in basin sequence stratigraphy that
build-up of deep sea fans by turbidity currents occur mostly during periods of relative sea-level fall (Falling Stage Systems Tract, e.g. Posamentier and Vail 1988).
As pointed out recently by Lee (2008) there are some key preconditioning factors
that contribute to the decrease of marine sediment strength on continental margins.
These are the sediment input, the interstitial fluid pressure, and gas hydrate dissociation. When these preconditioning factors produce weak sediment on a continental
slope, then the cyclic loading from earthquakes, even if of low magnitude, can
indeed generate slope failure. Intra-plate seismicity on passive margins induced by
the isostatic response to glacial load is climatically modulated in phase with sediment
input, interstitial fluid pressure, and gas hydrate dissociation.
However, because glacially induced isostatic rebound and gas hydrate dissociation likely play no role in generating slope instability of the Mediterranean
continental slopes, the observed concentration of submarine landslides during the
last deglaciation points to additional climate change control on initiation of slope
failure in addition to seismicity. Preconditioning factors that are climatically
modulated, such as the fluctuations of the ground water reservoir (Dan et al. 2007)
or the deposition of sediments with typical low shear resistance, like contourites
(Laberg and Camerlenghi 2008), should also be taken into consideration.
As a final remark, we want to stress that taking into account that unknown tsunami sources most probably correspond to aseismic submarine landslides (on-line
Mediterranean Tsunami Catalog, 1628B.C.-to present; Institute of Computational
Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics. Novosibirsk, RUSSIA, http://tsun.
sscc.ru/tsulab/On_line_Cat.htm) the second most frequent cause of tsunamis in the
Mediterranean basin, after earthquakes, are submarine landslides.
Surely, not enough experience has been gained on the subject and further studies
are necessary, including scientific drilling and in situ monitoring, in order to assess
the geohazard potential of submarine landslides in a highly vulnerable area such as
the Mediterranean basin.
Acknowledgments This study has benefited from a travel grant to L. Fantoni from the University
of Modena for a research stay at the University of Barcelona. The analysis is part of the contribution
of the University of Barcelona to IODP proposal #517 (MEDSLIDES) presently under evaluation.
This a scientific contribution of GRC Geociències Marines, supported by the Generalitat de
Catalunya program for excellence research groups (ref. 2005SGR00152). Helpful and constructive
critical reviews of the first draft were provided by Brandon Dugan and Michi Strasser.
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