November 21, 2000 Tsunami: Paatuut, Greenland

A major landslide at Paatuut, about 40 km north-west of Saqqaq on the south coast of Nuussuaq caused a tsunami up to 50 m close to the landslide, and 28 m at Qullissat. Seismic stations recorded the event. Ten boats were destroyed. (#reference 3938)

A large landslide occurred November 21, 2000 at Paatuut, facing the Vaigat Strait on the west coast of Greenland. 90 million m3 (260 million tons) of mainly basaltic material slid very rapidly (average velocity 140 km/h ) down from 1,000-1,400 m altitude. Approximately 30 million m3 (87 million tons) entered the sea, creating a tsunami with an run-up height of 50 m close to the landslide and 28 m at Qullissat, an abandoned mining town opposite Paatuut across the 20 km wide Vaigat strait. The event was recorded seismically, allowing the duration of the slide to be estimated to circa 80 s and also allowing an estimate of the surface-wave magnitude of the slide of 2.3. (reference #1399)

[...] the 2000 event resulted in severe material damage to Qullissat, 20 km from the source, and minor damages to the village of Saqqaq 50 km away [...] Work on the 2000 Paatuut rock avalanche by Pedersen et al. (2002) and Dahl-Jensen et al. (2004) proposes that the avalanche mainly involved in situ bedrock of Palaeogene volcanic rocks sliding on unconsolidated Palaeogene mudstones. They suggested that this was the common model for landslides in this geological region, the Nuussuaq Basin [...] The 2000 Paatuut rock avalanche was channelized. The rock avalanche, thus, probably had enough speed and energy to produce a destructive tsunami, although a submarine failure of unknown size was suggested to also have played a role in the development of the tsunami (Pedersen et al. 2002; Dahl-Jensen et al. 2004). (reference #13334)