Tsunamis are triggered by sudden seafloor displacements, and usually originate from seismic activity at faults. Nevertheless, strike-slip faults are usually disregarded as major triggers, as they are thought to be capable of generating only moderate seafloor deformation; accordingly, the tsunamigenic potential of the vertical throw at the tips of strike-slip faults is not thought to be significant. We found the active dextral NW-SE Averroes Fault in the central Alboran Sea (westernmost Mediterranean) has a historical vertical throw of up to 5.4 m at its northwestern tip corresponding to an earthquake of Mw 7.0. We modelled the tsunamigenic potential of this seafloor deformation by Tsunami-HySEA software using the Coulomb 3.3 code. Waves propagating on two main branches reach highly populated sectors of the Iberian coast with maximum arrival heights of 6 m within 21 and 35 min, which is too quick for current early-warning systems to operate successfully. These findings suggest that the tsunamigenic potential of strike-slip faults is more important than previously thought, and justify the re-evaluation of tsunami early-warning systems worldwide.

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No competing interests reported.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
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Posted 15 Mar, 2021
On 26 Apr, 2021
Received 22 Mar, 2021
On 12 Mar, 2021
Invitations sent on 12 Mar, 2021
On 10 Mar, 2021
On 08 Mar, 2021
On 08 Mar, 2021
On 01 Mar, 2021
Posted 15 Mar, 2021
On 26 Apr, 2021
Received 22 Mar, 2021
On 12 Mar, 2021
Invitations sent on 12 Mar, 2021
On 10 Mar, 2021
On 08 Mar, 2021
On 08 Mar, 2021
On 01 Mar, 2021
Tsunamis are triggered by sudden seafloor displacements, and usually originate from seismic activity at faults. Nevertheless, strike-slip faults are usually disregarded as major triggers, as they are thought to be capable of generating only moderate seafloor deformation; accordingly, the tsunamigenic potential of the vertical throw at the tips of strike-slip faults is not thought to be significant. We found the active dextral NW-SE Averroes Fault in the central Alboran Sea (westernmost Mediterranean) has a historical vertical throw of up to 5.4 m at its northwestern tip corresponding to an earthquake of Mw 7.0. We modelled the tsunamigenic potential of this seafloor deformation by Tsunami-HySEA software using the Coulomb 3.3 code. Waves propagating on two main branches reach highly populated sectors of the Iberian coast with maximum arrival heights of 6 m within 21 and 35 min, which is too quick for current early-warning systems to operate successfully. These findings suggest that the tsunamigenic potential of strike-slip faults is more important than previously thought, and justify the re-evaluation of tsunami early-warning systems worldwide.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4
No competing interests reported.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
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