Results are presented from two-dimensional direct numerical simulations of sediment wave formation via a succession of erosional and depositional turbidity currents. For currents propagating down a slope, we observe the formation of upstream migrating periodic sediment waves. The strength of the wave formation process is discussed as function of the governing dimensionless parameters.

The March 13th 1888 collapse of Ritter Island in Papua New Guinea is the largest known sector collapse of an island volcano in historical times. One single event removed most of the island and its western submarine flank, and produced a landslide deposit that extends at least 70 km from the headwall of the collapse scar. We have mapped and described the deposits of the debris avalanche left by the collapse using full-coverage multibeam bathymetry, side-scan sonar backscatter intensity mapping, chirp seismic-reflection profiles, TowCam photographs of the seafloor and samples from a single dredge. Applying concepts originally developed on the 1980 Mount St. Helens collapse landslide deposits, we find that the Ritter landslide deposits show three distinct morphological facies: large block debris avalanche, matrix-rich debris avalanche and distal debris flow facies. Restoring the island's land and submarine topography we obtained a volume of 4.2 km3 for the initial collapse, about 75% of which is now forming the large block facies at distances less than 12 km from the collapse scar. The matrix-rich facies volume is unknown, but large scale erosion of the marine sediment substrate yielded a minimum total volume of 6.4 km3 in the distal debris flow and/or turbidite deposits, highlighting the efficiency of substrate erosion during the later history of the landslide movement. Although studying submarine landslide deposits we can never have the same confidence that subaerial observations provide, our analysis shows that well-exposed submarine landslide deposits can be interpreted in a similar way to subaerial volcano collapse deposits, and that they can in turn be used to interpret older, incompletely exposed submarine landslide deposits. Studying the deposits from a facies perspective provides the basis for reconstructing the kinematics of a collapse event landslide; understanding the mechanisms involved in its movement and deposition; and so providing key inputs to tsunami models.

During a cruise on the R/V Kilo Moana in 2004, we mapped 12 debris avalanches from volcanoes in the Bismarck volcanic arc, estimated their sizes and computed the size of potential tsunami run-up in major local population centers from these features. We used the towed side-scan instrument HAWAII MR1, the hull-mounted EM120 system for swath bathymetry and backscatter intensity, a shallow penetration chirp system, several bottom camera tows and selected cores. We calibrate our computations with the known tsunami run-up of the Ritter collapse. Even the small collapses may have had significant run-up on near-by coastlines. Had any of the collapses we have identified occurred in modern times each would affect a presently populated region of the coastline to a moderate or significant degree.

Extinct volcanic islands in the Bismarck volcanic arc are fringed by well-developed coral reefs. Drowned platforms offshore from these islands provide evidence for subsidence in the central section of the arc, north of the Finisterre Terrane–Australia collision. Bathymetric and backscatter data collected onboard the R/V Kilo Moana in 2004 reveal regularly spaced (~200 m interval) drowned platforms at depths as much as 1,100 m below sea level. However, the adjacent mainland coast has well documented raised terraces indicating long-term uplift. Local subsidence may be due to cessation of magmatic activity and cooling, flexural loading by the uplifting Finisterre Range, loading by nearby active volcanic islands, and/or sediment loading on the seafloor north of the Finisterre Range. We present some simple models in order to test whether flexural loading can account for local subsidence. We find that volcanic and sedimentary loading can explain the inferred relative subsidence.

In the Bismarck Volcanic Arc in Papua New Guinea, six fields of sediment waves were imaged with sonar. Sediment structures observed in seismic data and swath bathymetry are not unique and can result from predominantly continuous ( bottom) currents, or episodic ( turbidity) currents, or from deformation of sediment. Two of these wave fields overlap and appear to be of turbidity-current origin and modified by bottom currents, with one field unconformably overlying the other field. A field off the coast of Dakataua caldera displays an arcuate morphology, and a series of enclosed depressions within the field suggests creation by extensional deformation of rapidly deposited sediment. Scour features in side-scan imagery suggest turbidity-current activity, which also likely modifies the sediment waves. The wave field is isolated from hyperpycnal currents, however, suggesting that in the absence of a shelf, coastal erosion and small landslides can produce semiregular gravity-driven sediment flows that deposit in deep (>1400 m) water. In Kimbe Bay a fourth sediment-wave field also displays arcuate morphology and enclosed depressions within the field. This wave field is found within a bay >40 km from shore and also appears to have been formed by a combination of extensional deformation of sediment and energetic current activity. Two additional fields in Hixon Bay are fed by small and medium rivers (1200 m). These findings suggest that the sedimentary record in arc collision zones will be dominated by mass-wasting deposits very close to volcanoes, and by river discharge depositing in select, extent regions far from shore. Because sedimentation rates can vary by a factor of 2 between the two flanks of a sediment wave, care must be taken when comparing bed thickness across an entire sedimentary section.

On the early morning of 13 March 1888, roughly five cubic kilometers of the Ritter Island volcano fell violently into the sea northeast of Papua New Guinea (Figure 1). This event, the largest lateral collapse of a volcanic island in historical time, flung devastating tsunamis tens of meters high onto adjacent shores [Cooke, 1981].Calamitous as they might be, natural disasters like these must be viewed in perspective. One should ask, “Were the events of that March day unique, or are they common geological occurrences?” Partly to address this question, a seafloor imaging and sampling program was conducted around Ritter Island and elsewhere along the Bismarck volcanic arc during November–December 2004 on the research vessel Kilo Moana.