marine geohazards and sedimentology

• New research led by NOC has shown how the massive Hunga volcano eruption in 2022 triggered the fastest underwater flows ever recorded.

Volcanic eruptions are one of the major natural hazards on our planet. Not only do they pose risks to people and property in surrounding communities, but they can damage critical infrastructure including the subsea telecommunications cables that support 99% of our digital communications globally.

Robotic sensors disguised as boulders, or ‘smart boulders’, have been used to measure the initiation and evolution of huge seafloor avalanches for the first time, revealing some surprising findings that will help inform where best to lay the seafloor cables that keep the internet running.

Large volume submarine landslides, triggered by the inception and growth of submarine volcanoes, represent among the largest mass movements of sediment on Earth’s surface.

The risk posed by tsunami waves generated by Canary Island landslides may need to be re-evaluated, according to researchers at the National Oceanography Centre. Their findings suggest that these landslides result in smaller tsunami waves than previously thought by some authors, because of the processes involved.

A new collaboration between the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the University of Southampton is seeking to improve geophysical remote sensing of seafloor methane gas and hydrate through innovative laboratory experimental and theoretical studies.