Ongoing mass wasting processes and tsunami menace in the Traful lake area, Argentinean Patagonia

Abstract The Patagonian Andes are characterized by a high relief, with numerous confined lakes in deep glacial valleys that currently experience minor rock falls. Although, there is a poorly known historical and post-glacial register of mass wasting phenomena and a complete absence of monitoring for potential future processes. In particular, the area called Los lagos, in Argentina, which is located south of latitude 35° S, where the glacial erosion shaped several valleys on both sides of the Andean range. The Andean area between 35° and 42° S has been releasing almost 25% of the world's total seismic energy from the adjacent subduction zone. The objective of this work is to analyze, a sector, in the northern margin of the Traful Lake, called Bosque Sumergido. The name of Bosque Sumergido was given because of the presence of an area of submerged dead trees in life position where part of the wood can be found underwater. In this work, we evaluate the potential risk for the city of Traful, located in front of it. We described this area in the context of mass wasting processes, the coastal morphological changes that occurred in the last 22 years and even some underwater features and bathymetry and analyzed the potential risk of tsunamis due to material falling into Traful Lake.