Submarine landslides offshore Yamba, NSW, Australia: an analysis of their timing, downslope motion and possible causes

Author(s)
Hubble, Thomas
Yeung, Serena
Clarke, Samantha
Baxter, Alan
De Blasio, Fabio
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
Radiocarbon isotopic ages and sedimentological data are presented for material recovered from three adjacent translational submarine landslides (YS1, YS2 and YS3) identified on the upper-continental slope offshore Yamba, New South Wales, Australia. The age data indicate that these three co-located upper-slope slides probably occurred independently of each other and not in a single, widespread regional-scale failure event. Numerical estimates of the likely runout distances for slide blocks corresponding to the entire landslide scar volumes range between 10 and 27 km, and represent a ‘runout zone’ in which landslide blocks or debris might reasonably be expected to be located. There is no morphological evidence for large blocks or debris fields derived from two of the Yamba landslide scars within their identified runout zones (YS1 and YS2), suggesting these two failures involved complete disintegration of large slide blocks after failure or the removal of sediment from the landslide sites as grainflows or turbidites. In contrast, the third runout zone (YS3) presents good evidence of at least 12 slide blocks between 100 and 200 m in diameter, suggesting that they were shed as relatively small individual blocks or they were generated due to the dismemberment of a larger slab.
Citation
Geological Society Special Publication, v.477, p. 207-222
ISSN
2041-4927
0305-8719
Link
Publisher
Geological Society Publishing House
Title
Submarine landslides offshore Yamba, NSW, Australia: an analysis of their timing, downslope motion and possible causes
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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