Resumen de Triggering Mechanisms of Tsunamisin the Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea: An Overview
Juan Tomás Vázquez, Gemma Ercilla Zárraga, Belén Alonso Martínez, José A. Peláez Montilla, Desirée Palomino, Ricardo León, Patricia Bárcenas Gascón, David Casas, Ferran Estrada Llacer, María C. Fernández Puga, Jesús Galindo Zaldívar, Jesús Henares Romero, Miguel Llorente Isidro, O. Sánchez Guillamón, Elia d’Acremont, Abdellah Ammar, Mimoun Chourak, Luis M. Fernández Salas, Nieves López González, Sara Lafuerza
The Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea are characterized by tectonic activity due to oblique convergence at the boundary between the Eurasian and Nubian plates. This activity has favored a variety of tsunamigenic sources: basically, seismogenic faults and submarine landslides. The main tsunamigenic faults in the Gulf of Cadiz would comprise the thrust systems of Gorringe Ridge, Marquês de Pombal, São Vicente Canyon, and Horseshoe faults with a high susceptibility; meanwhile in the Alboran Sea would be the thrust system ofthe northern Alboran Ridge with high susceptibility, and the thrust systems of north Xauen and Adra margin, the transpressive segment of Al Idrissi fault, and the Yusuf-Habibas and Averroes faults, with moderate to high susceptibility. The areas with the greatest potential to generate tsunamigenic submarine landslides are in the Gulf of Cadiz, the São Vicente Canyon, Hirondelle Seamount, and Gorringe Ridge; and in the Alboran Sea are the southern and northern flanks of Alboran Ridge. Both sources are likely to generate destructive tsunamis in the Gulf of Cadiz, given its history of bigger earthquakes (>7 Mw) and larger landslides. To fully assess tsunamigenic sources, further work needs to be performed. In the case of seismogenicfaults, research focus on geometry, offsets, timing, paleoearthquakes, and recurrence, and in landslides on early post-failure evolution, age, events, and recurrence. In situ measurements, paleotsunami records, and long-termmonitoring, in addition to major modeling developments, will be also necessary.
