Terrestrial Laser Scanner techniques in the assessment of tsunami impact on the Maddalena Peninsula (south-eastern Sicily, Italy).

The Maddalena Peninsula coastline (south-eastern Sicily, Italy) is characterised by the occurrence of a boulder field associated to an extended soil stripping area and by a gravel/sandy berm. The accumulation of the boulders has been correlated to the impact of the December 28, 1908 tsunami wave. The use of Terrestrial Laser Scanner survey techniques, associated to Digital Global Positioning System determinations, permits to obtain new data for the assessment of tsunami impact on this coastal area. The computing of the surveyed data using the most recent equations is a useful tool in order to estimate the theoretic inundation limit and to reconstruct its variability in function of the boulders size and of the coastal topography. Moreover, the entire new data set allows to confirm that the hypothesis of the tsunami impact is the most reasonable to explain the occurrence of boulder up to 50 tons heavy on the Maddalena Peninsula.