Hunting Lebanon AD551 Tsunami Deposits

Project Overview

The AD551 Beirut-Tripoli earthquake is reported to have generated a large tsunami flooding the cities of Beirut and Tripoli. To date no research has been undertaken to investigate the sedimentary deposits of this event.

This pilot project aims to search for sandy and bouldery tsunami deposits associated with this event in low-lying coastal marshes and coastal platforms on the Lebanese coast. Although the coastline is primarily rocky there are small pocket beaches that are backed by low lying floodplains and coastal marshes which we feel may potentially record the event in their recent coastal stratigraphy.