Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations

Ciutadella harbor, in Menorca (Balearic Islands), is a well-known hotspot for the occurrence of meteotsunamis, i.e., tsunami-like sea level oscillations generated by atmospheric disturbances. This phenomenon represents a significant hazard for Ciutadella and other coastal locations of the Balearic I...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Villalonga Llauger, Joan, Pascual, Josep, Puigdefàbregas Sagristà, Joan, Gomis Bosch, Damià, Jordà Sánchez, Gabriel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/456228
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/456228
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07801-3
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Meteotsunamis
Sea level
Western mediterranean
Tide gauge
Extreme events
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Enginyeria hidràulica, marítima i sanitària::Ports i costes
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spelling Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observationsVillalonga Llauger, JoanPascual, JosepPuigdefàbregas Sagristà, JoanGomis Bosch, DamiàJordà Sánchez, GabrielMeteotsunamisSea levelWestern mediterraneanTide gaugeExtreme eventsÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Enginyeria hidràulica, marítima i sanitària::Ports i costesCiutadella harbor, in Menorca (Balearic Islands), is a well-known hotspot for the occurrence of meteotsunamis, i.e., tsunami-like sea level oscillations generated by atmospheric disturbances. This phenomenon represents a significant hazard for Ciutadella and other coastal locations of the Balearic Islands and the NE Iberian Peninsula, as meteotsunamis can cause flooding events and damage to harbor infrastructures. Nevertheless, scientific studies on meteotsunamis at places other than Ciutadella are scarce. In fact, this work is the first regional characterization of the phenomenon. It has been possible thanks to the availability of high-resolution (1-minute) tide gauge data from 27 stations. The analysis of the sea level records reveals that the impact of meteotsunamis is spatially heterogeneous, with large events occurring only in locations with a large resonant amplification. We have found that, aside from Ciutadella, other locations (Vilanova, Portocolom and Port de Sóller) suffer from frequent, large events. Additionally, large sea level oscillations occur simultaneously at different sites, as they are linked to synoptic-scale atmospheric patterns that can cover a significant fraction of the region. This also explains the shared meteotsunami seasonality, with most events occurring in late spring and summer. In some locations, however, the number of out-of-season events is not negligible; these events are shown to be linked to atmospheric phenomena other than those generating the typical summer meteotsunamis. Finally, the inference of amplitude relationships across sites has not been possible, because the amplitude of the oscillations is determined by local coastal topography and by small-scale features of the atmospheric disturbances.With thank Aitor González for the digitalization of the analogic sea level records of l’Estartit. This work has been funded by the R + D + I project VENOM (PGC2018-099285-B-C21, PGC2018-099285-B-C22) and the project SEAFRONT (TED2021-132132B-C21), both funded by MCIN/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 and by the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. The Croatian Science Foundation also supported this work with project GLOMETS (Grant IP-2022-10-3064). J.V. has been funded by the Conselleria d’Educació, Universitat i Recerca del Govern Balear through the Direcció General de Política Universitària i Recerca and by the Fondo Social Europeo from July 2022 onwards (grant n. FPI/057/2021). We thank the data providers (Josep Pascual, Puertos del Estado, SOCIB and Ports-IB) for making their datasets freely available.Peer ReviewedSpringer20262026-02-0120262026-02-25journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/456228https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07801-3reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)InglésengAgencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PGC2018-099285-B-C21 VARIABILIDAD ESPACIAL DEL NIVEL DEL MAR EN EL MEDITERRANEO OCCIDENTALAgencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PGC2018-099285-B-C22 VARIABILIDAD ESPACIAL DEL NIVEL DEL MAR EN EL MEDITERRANEO OCCIDENTALopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/4562282026-05-27T15:37:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
title Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
spellingShingle Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
Villalonga Llauger, Joan
Meteotsunamis
Sea level
Western mediterranean
Tide gauge
Extreme events
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Enginyeria hidràulica, marítima i sanitària::Ports i costes
title_short Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
title_full Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
title_fullStr Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
title_full_unstemmed Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
title_sort Meteotsunamis in the Western mediterranean: a regional analysis from high-frequency sea level observations
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Villalonga Llauger, Joan
Pascual, Josep
Puigdefàbregas Sagristà, Joan
Gomis Bosch, Damià
Jordà Sánchez, Gabriel
author Villalonga Llauger, Joan
author_facet Villalonga Llauger, Joan
Pascual, Josep
Puigdefàbregas Sagristà, Joan
Gomis Bosch, Damià
Jordà Sánchez, Gabriel
author_role author
author2 Pascual, Josep
Puigdefàbregas Sagristà, Joan
Gomis Bosch, Damià
Jordà Sánchez, Gabriel
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Meteotsunamis
Sea level
Western mediterranean
Tide gauge
Extreme events
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Enginyeria hidràulica, marítima i sanitària::Ports i costes
topic Meteotsunamis
Sea level
Western mediterranean
Tide gauge
Extreme events
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil::Enginyeria hidràulica, marítima i sanitària::Ports i costes
description Ciutadella harbor, in Menorca (Balearic Islands), is a well-known hotspot for the occurrence of meteotsunamis, i.e., tsunami-like sea level oscillations generated by atmospheric disturbances. This phenomenon represents a significant hazard for Ciutadella and other coastal locations of the Balearic Islands and the NE Iberian Peninsula, as meteotsunamis can cause flooding events and damage to harbor infrastructures. Nevertheless, scientific studies on meteotsunamis at places other than Ciutadella are scarce. In fact, this work is the first regional characterization of the phenomenon. It has been possible thanks to the availability of high-resolution (1-minute) tide gauge data from 27 stations. The analysis of the sea level records reveals that the impact of meteotsunamis is spatially heterogeneous, with large events occurring only in locations with a large resonant amplification. We have found that, aside from Ciutadella, other locations (Vilanova, Portocolom and Port de Sóller) suffer from frequent, large events. Additionally, large sea level oscillations occur simultaneously at different sites, as they are linked to synoptic-scale atmospheric patterns that can cover a significant fraction of the region. This also explains the shared meteotsunami seasonality, with most events occurring in late spring and summer. In some locations, however, the number of out-of-season events is not negligible; these events are shown to be linked to atmospheric phenomena other than those generating the typical summer meteotsunamis. Finally, the inference of amplitude relationships across sites has not been possible, because the amplitude of the oscillations is determined by local coastal topography and by small-scale features of the atmospheric disturbances.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2026
2026-02-01
2026
2026-02-25
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/456228
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07801-3
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/456228
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07801-3
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Agencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PGC2018-099285-B-C21 VARIABILIDAD ESPACIAL DEL NIVEL DEL MAR EN EL MEDITERRANEO OCCIDENTAL
Agencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 PGC2018-099285-B-C22 VARIABILIDAD ESPACIAL DEL NIVEL DEL MAR EN EL MEDITERRANEO OCCIDENTAL
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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