earth science

Nuʻuanu Slide

Nuʻuanu Slide is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nuʻuanu Slide rather than just read about it. In short: Nuʻuanu Slide or Nuʻuanu Debris Avalanche is the largest of seventeen known submarine landslides around the Hawaiian Islands and at 200 kilometers (124 mi) in length, one of the largest landslides on Earth. It broke from the eastern or windward side of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi between 1 and 1.5 million years ago and lies in the Pacific Ocean north of Molokaʻi.

Key takeaways

Nuʻuanu Slide belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nuʻuanu Slide to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nuʻuanu Slide from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nuʻuanu Slide or Nuʻuanu Debris Avalanche is the largest of seventeen known submarine landslides around the Hawaiian Islands and at 200 kilometers (124 mi) in length, one of the largest landslides on Earth. It broke from the eastern or windward side of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi between 1 and 1.5 million years ago and lies in the Pacific Ocean north of Molokaʻi.

Collapse At the time of collapse, Oʻahu was part of the conglomerate island Maui Nui, elevated above the ocean from lower sea levels, and contained the Koʻolau Volcano. The eastern half of the mountain collapsed nearly in half at the caldera. The remains of the eastern half of the caldera is now Kāneʻohe Bay and the new western side is the Koʻolau Range above the bay, including observation point Nuʻuanu Pali. Though the remaining ridge appears to be a steep and weathered fault scarp, evidence suggests the geographic features are from wind and water rather than the landslide event. The volcano collapsed nearly in half at the caldera with the eastern half falling into the ocean cataclysmically with enough force to send debris, part of which forms the massive Tuscaloosa Seamount, across the ocean floor and up a ridge. This landslide created a massive tsunami which ravaged the islands and possibly the Western coast of ancient North America.

Causes The volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands have large sizes with relatively steep submarine slopes, causing them to be gravitationally unstable and prone to collapse, generating some of the largest landslides on Earth. This can be seen with dozens of giant landslides with deposits extending more than 200 kilometers from the main islands, with a new landslide roughly every 350,000 years.

References

External links IMAGES – http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~kenhon/GEOL205/Landslides2/default.htm http://www.scihi.hawaii.edu/downloads/Unit3Uka/StudentHandouts/GeologyandGPS/pdf/c_Reading_Oahu_landslide-map.pdf

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nuʻuanu Slide

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nuʻuanu Slide claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nuʻuanu Slide before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nuʻuanu Slide ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nuʻuanu Slide

In research: Nuʻuanu Slide appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nuʻuanu Slide in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nuʻuanu Slide is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geology of Hawaii, Megatsunamis, Pleistocene geology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nuʻuanu Slide outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nuʻuanu Slide in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nuʻuanu Slide means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nuʻuanu Slide out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nuʻuanu Slide in simple terms?

Why does Nuʻuanu Slide matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nuʻuanu Slide?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nuʻuanu Slide.