Owen Ridge deep-water submarine landslides: implications for tsunami hazard along the Oman coast

International audienceThe recent discovery of voluminous submarine landslides along the Owen Ridge may represent a source of tsunami hazard for the nearby Oman coast. We as- sess the severity of this potential hazard by performing numerical simulations of tsunami generation and propaga- tion from the biggest landslide (40km3 in volume) ob- served along the Owen Ridge. A finite-difference model, assimilating the landslide to a visco-plastic flow, simulates tsunami generation. Computation results show that Salalah city(190000inhabitants)isimpactedby2.5m-hightsunami waves one hour after sediment failure. Higher wave eleva- tion values (4 m) are reached in the low populated Sawqara Bay over 80 min after slide initiation. Although large subma- rine failures along remote oceanic ridges are infrequent, this study reveals an underestimated source of tsunami hazard in theArabianSea