Freshwater (Paleo)Tsunamis - A Review

In freshwater systems (rivers and lakes), historical and recent tsunamis have been documented and their traces have been found in the geological record, but studies of paleotsunamis (prehistorical tsunamis) in such environments are still underrepresented. This contribution reviews paleotsunami studies with a focus on the post 2011 period and uses historical events to highlight some areas of research that have received little attention. In the past decade, the number of paleotsunami studies has increased and this includes those carried out over freshwater settings. However, studies of lacustrine paleotsunamis compared to studies on marine paleotsunamis are still rare and those for rivers are to our knowledge non-existent. Similarly, studies of historical tsunamis generated by meteorological disturbances have been carried out but there have been none for their paleotsunami counterpart. Thus, within this review, to cover all different aspects of tsunami generation processes in freshwater systems, we have used several historical examples, although there is a notable focus on lacustrine paleotsunamis. This review shows that future studies of freshwater paleotsunamis are necessary in order to better understand their causes, frequencies and hazard potential.