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Abstract

Large submarine landslides can generate dangerous tsunamis. Because of their long-period signal, detection of landslides by common seismological methods is difficult. Here we suggest a method of detecting submarine landslides by using an array of land-based tiltmeters. The displacement of a large volume of sediments during landsliding produces a detectable elastic response of the lithosphere. We propose a technique to calculate this response and to invert for tsunami relevant parameters like slide location, volume, and velocity. We exemplify our method by applying it to the Storegga slide west of Norway and other tsunamigenic landslide events. The parameter which can be most robustly estimated from tiltmeter array measurements is the product of slide volume and its velocity (slide tsunamigenic potential). This parameter also controls the amplitude of the generated tsunami wave. The inversion accuracy of this parameter and the estimated tsunami height near the coast depends on the noise level of tiltmeter measurements, distance of the tiltmeters from the slide, and slide tsunamigenic potential itself. The tsunamigenic potential of the most dangerous slides like Storegga can be estimated well by tiltmeters at the coast if the effective noise level does not exceed 50 nrad.