Abstract
The Port of Klaipeda, situated in Klaipeda Strait that connects the southeastern Baltic Sea with the Curonian Lagoon, is prone to dangerous sea-level oscillations originating from various sources and possessing a wide range of physical characteristics. The present study investigates extreme seiches (meteotsunamis) in this basin spanning a five-year period (2017–2021), with a primary focus on determining their origin and specific factors triggering devastating events. On average, strong seiches result in over 60 days of hazardous situations, requiring the partial or complete halt of the port operations. We examined in detail two specific events: 23–24 December 2017 and 20 June 2020. The first event was forecasted, while the second event was not predicted according to the existing forecasting procedure. We found that for both events amplified seiche oscillations and associated intense currents were observed at two dominant periods: 26 and 14 min, which appear to be related to the primary Eigen modes of the port. Our findings emphasize the frequent presence of hazardous seiches in the Port of Klaipeda, highlighting the necessity to update and improve the forecasting methodology. A reliable forecasting system for the Port of Klaipeda should be based on the resonant properties of the port and relationships between weather patterns and induced long waves affecting the port.
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The sea level, sea surface atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction data from The Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service can be obtained on request from the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service.
Notes
TEU = Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, a unit of measurement used to describe the capacity of a container ship or terminal.
From this point of view, the situation in the Port of Klaipeda is similar to the situation in the Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which is one of the world largest ports: Weather-induced resonant harbour oscillations in this port strongly affect port activities, hamper ships and cause threatening coastal floodings (de Jong and Battjes 2003; de Jong et al. 2004).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service (LHS) of the Ministry of the Environment for providing the meteorological data and Judita Navašinskiene from the LHS Forecast and Warning division for the help and important advice related to the methodology for forecasting marine hazards in the Port of Klaipeda. The authors would like to acknowledge Professor Kai Myrberg for his valuable scientific insights. Very helpful comments and suggestions of Tarmo Soomere and one anonymous reviewer are highly appreciated. The authors sincerely thank Fred Stephenson (Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC, Canada) for editing this manuscript and for many helpful suggestions. L. Klepšaitė-Rimkienė was partly funded by Baltic Research Programme (EEA Financial Mechanisms 2014–2021) project “Solutions to current and future problems on natural and constructed shorelines, eastern Baltic Sea” (EMP480) and Aю Rabinovich by IORAS RS Assignement t FMWE-2024-0018.
Funding
L. Klepšaitė-Rimkienė was partly funded by Baltic Research Programme (EEA Financial Mechanisms 2014–2021) project “Solutions to current and future problems on natural and constructed shorelines, eastern Baltic Sea” (EMP480), while A. Rabinovich was partly supported by IORAS RS Assignement t FMWE-2024-0018. L. Nesteckytė declare that no funds, grants or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
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Nesteckytė, L., Kelpšaitė-Rimkienė, L. & Rabinovich, A.B. Hazardous meteotsunami-like sea-level oscillations in the Port of Klaipeda, the Baltic Sea. Nat Hazards 120, 2909–2928 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06311-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06311-4