UK tsunami risk ‘very small’
The risk of a tsunami hitting the UK, although very small, cannot be discounted, a new report shows.
But the study, commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, concludes that the waves would be smaller than those generated by storm surges.
And all major centres of development in coasts and estuaries are already protected against such events, according to the research team led by the British Geological Survey.
Floods minister Elliot Morley explained that the Government was moved to investigate the likelihood of a tsunami affecting the UK following the Indian Ocean disaster last year.
“The report confirms that the probability is very low, and that in most cases our current defences to major centres should be sufficient”, he said.
“However, we will be looking at what further appropriate steps could be taken to adapt our existing warning and response systems.”
Defra is now focussing on adapting existing warning and response systems – designed to cope with storm surges – to deal with the different character and frequency of tsunami events.
A tsunami is a series of particularly fast moving waves. These are generated by a sudden event in the ocean, such as a meteorite impact, a volcanic eruption or an earthquake, as in the case of last year’s south-east Asian tsunami.
Moving with great speed across the ocean, tsunamis lose little energy and on hitting shallower coastal waters the resultant waves can wreak havoc.
There is evidence of several tsunamis in Europe’s history. In 1755 a tsunami and its preceding earthquake together destroyed Lisbon and geological records show that a tsunami hit coastal areas in Scotland and north-east England after a submarine landslide off Norway about 8,200 years ago.
