Storm waves can move boulders we thought only tsunamis had the power to shift

It’s not just tsunamis that can change the landscape: storms shifted giant boulders four times the size of a house on the coast of Ireland in the winter of 2013-14, leading researchers to rethink the maximum energy storm waves can have – and the damage they can do. Four years ago, storms moved huge boulders along the west coast of Ireland. The same storms shifted smaller ones as high as 26 meters above high water and 222 meters inland. Many of the boulders moved were heavier than 100 tons, and the largest moved was 620 tons – the equivalent of six blue whales or four single-story houses. It was previously assumed that only tsunamis could move boulders of the size seen displaced in Ireland, but the new paper provides direct evidence that storm waves can do this kind of work. …read more