A critical review about generic subaerial landslide-tsunami experiments and options for a needed step change

Subaerial landslide-tsunamis (SLTs) are generated by mass movements such as landslides, rockfalls, glacier calving and snow avalanches impacting into lakes, reservoirs, fjords and the sea. Past SLTs reached runup heights of up to 524 m and are responsible, in combination with associated phenomena and tsunamis generated by partially submerged landslides, for a cumulative death toll in excess of 58000. Generic experimental research into SLTs, i.e. studies intended to predict SLTs for a range of scenarios, is ongoing for many decades. However, the advancement in the physical understanding, the wave prediction accuracy between similar studies and the reliability of hazard assessments does not fully reflect the large number of published generic peer-review work, particularly after 2005. A step change in generic SLT research is therefore needed. This article critically reviews SLT research with a focus on generic empirical equations from laboratory and numerical tests. Key features of past SLT cases are presented, relevant parameters affecting SLTs are reviewed and the most relevant conditions of 76 studies involving 6481 experiments, are listed including 10 milestone studies. This article further reviews findings into the effects of the mass movement type and slide model, slide to wave energy transfer, wave types, the effects of the water body geometry and non-uniform bathymetry, frequency domain analysis, edge waves and analytic achievements. Research gaps and shortcomings around generic empirical equations are also highlighted. Options to contribute to a step change are then suggested. These include the Korteweg-de Vries and Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equations, a generally applicable numerical code, machine learning and combinations.