Around 300,000 years ago , a rooftree near Australia ’s Great Barrier Reef collapsed , unleash a massive undersea avalanche . The result landslide scattered rubble for miles and set off a goodish tsunami , allot to newfangled inquiry .
The remains of the ancient sideslip , known as the Gloria Knolls Slide , were discovered 46 miles ( 75 km ) off the north Queensland glide , and at the bottom of the Queensland Trough — a vast washbowl that execute adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef . A team led by geologist Robin Beaman from James Cook University made the discovery while conducting 3D function of ancient reefs in the giant gully .
The enquiry , publishedin the daybook Marine Geology , identifies a debris field of large blocks , known as knolls , and numerous other pulley block scattered over 18 naut mi ( 30 km ) from the source of the crash . When the cliff wall failed , it released a whopping eight cubic air mile ( 32 cubic kilometer ) of rock , spilling to a depth of 4,500 feet ( 1,350 meters ) . That ’s about 30 metre the book of sediment stop in Australia ’s famedUluru sandstone monolith , also know as Ayers Rock .
After reveal the hillock , the researchers used 3D map to uncover the source of the landslide .
“ We were amazed to discover this cluster of knolls while 3D multibeam mapping the deep GBR seafloor , ” read Beaman in a statement . “ In an country of the Queensland Trough that was supposed to be comparatively 2-dimensional were eight knolls , appearing like James Jerome Hill with some over 100 meters [ 328 feet ] gamey and 3 kilometre [ 1.8 miles ] long . ”
The sudden collapse of the wall contained enough potential energy to produce an 88 - foot - high ( 27 time ) tsunami wave , but the gargantuan wafture , as it moved towards the ancient Australian sea-coast , was probably dampened by the surrounding corals . “ The Great Barrier Reef play like a jumbo poriferous breakwater to deoxidise the DOE [ of sea swell],”saidBeaman in an interview with the BBC . “ If it was in macrocosm at the sentence of this landslide , it would have done a like job . ” Looking ahead , the researchers would like to screw if the tsunami risk posed by similar landslide threaten the Queensland coast .
As part of the cogitation , the investigator take sediment sample from a knoll at a profundity of 3,840 feet ( 1,170 meters ) . Analysis of the samples confirmed the mien of both living and fossilized coral coinage , gorgonian sea whips ( a fan - shaped soft coral ) , bamboo coral , molluscs , and stalked barnacle . The older fossilize red coral was dated to 302,000 years ago , so the landslide could n’t have happened any earlier than that .
prehistorical undersea landslides have been show before , let in theAgulhas slide — an case that unleashed 4,800 cubic miles ( 20,000 cubic km ) of rubble off South Africa about 2.6 million age ago . If that sound like a flock , it is ; that ’s about 625 times boastful than the Gloria Knolls Slide , and it released intimately enough mass to fill all of the Great Lakes .
[ Marine Geology ]
australiaGeologygreat roadblock reeflandslidesScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox day by day .
tidings from the future , cede to your present tense .
You May Also Like
