Weird Mini Tsunami Hits England
A mild tsunami swept the coast of southern England this week, sending people running for higher ground, British media reported.
On Monday morning (June 27), water came surging ashore in Cornwall, and eyewitnesses reported a feeling of static electricity in the air.
"The funniest thing was on the causeway all the ladies' hair was standing on end with the static," Dave Ladner, a boater near St. Michael's Mount, the famed tidal island off the coast of Cornwall, told the BBC.
The wave, thought to have been roughly 16 inches (40 centimeters) high, didn't cause any damage, the Guardian newspaper reported.
There were no earthquakes in the region at the time of the tsunami, according to the British Geological Survey and the tsunami was likely the result of an underwater landslide, Mark Davidson, a professor at the University of Plymouth told the BBC.
In Portsmouth, tide gauges registered water levels a full 1.3 feet (0.4 meters) higher than normal.
A video posted to YouTube shows a slow surge of water creeping up the River Yealm.
At sea, a boater told the BBC the wave sent his vessels pitching and rolling, but all was calm again 15 minutes later.
Scientists have long warned that underwater landslides pose significant tsunami risk, including in the Los Angeles area.
Megatsunamis caused by landslides are thought to occur every 100,000 years or so. A volcanic landslide is thought to have generated an unbelievably monstrous 1,600-foot tsunamiin Hawaii 110,000 years ago.
