The Nice tsunami of 1979 came on October 16. Two

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

s struck the coast near

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, accompanied by a landslide at the

Nice Airport Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, and an aseismic

submarine landslide Submarine landslides are marine landslides that transport sediment across the continental shelf and into the deep ocean. A submarine landslide is initiated when the downwards driving stress (gravity and other factors) exceeds the resisting str ...

. The two waves struck the coast between the Italian border and the town of

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

(60 miles; 96 km).Allaby, M. (2004). A Chronology of Weather. Infobase Publishing. They reached 3 m high near Nice and 3.5 m at La Salis (Antibes) and decreased in amplitude from there.

Causes

The origin of these events has been a subject of academic and judicial debate. One hypothesis said that it was the landslide at the

Nice airport Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

; while the other stated that it was an underwater landslide.Seed, H. B. (1988). The landslide at the Port of Nice on October 16, 1979. Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California. A 0.15 km³ slide took place off Nice airport while constructing the fill of the new airport, perhaps as a consequence of this work. This landslide would have caused the first tsunami. The material from this slide could have caused a submarine slide that would have caused the second tsunami. In the second hypothesis, the major natural submarine landslide (~8.7 km²) that occurred offshore Nice caused a tsunami which would have caused a landslide of the fill of the new airport. This landslide caused another tsunami.

Consequences

Casualty estimates range between 8 and 23. At the construction site, the collapsing fill killed seven people. The tsunamis inundated a 20-mile section of the coast.Dudley, W. C., & Lee, M. (1998). Tsunami!. University of Hawaii Press. The water travelled up to 150 m inland. Eleven people were swept away in Nice and one in Antibes. The airport works were finished, but this event forestalled the construction of a new port for Nice.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nice tsunami (1979) 20th century in Nice 1979 natural disasters Nice tsunami 1979 tsunamis Nice tsunami