Has a tsunami ever hit England?

Answer 1

It is not possible to make projections about the distant future, as "ever" is a very long time.

Under current conditions, Great Britain could experience a tsunami from an earthquake and/or submarine landslide in the North Sea, off the Norwegian coast, which would affect Scotland and the Yorkshire coast, or from a landslide at La Palma, which would affect the Cornwall coast. Both risks are quite low and we're probably talking about a 2-meter tsunami, at most.

Answer 2

Yes.

That is if you consider Cornwall part of England. The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 generated a Tsunami that hit parts of Cornwall and at St Michaels Mount waves up over 2.4 m were recorded. Not huge, by the standards of Tsunamis but enough to cause damage and there are some reports of deaths but no record of a death toll.

Another hit Scotland and the Shetland Isles, about 8000 years ago - go and look up the "Storegga Slide" for more info.

There is a lot of debate that the 1607 floods in the Bristol Channel were caused by a Tsunami generated from an earthquake off the coast of Ireland. Although others still think this could have been caused by a storm surge. So until they decide one way or another, it is best not to call this a Tsunami. Around 2000 people died during these floods.

DEFRA have produced a report on the possibility of future Tsunami hitting Britain, a quick web search on "DEFRA" and "Tsunami" will find it, which does make fairly reassuring reading. There are still discussions over the Cumbre Veija volcano in the Canary islands which may cause a Tsunami in the future. but by no means as big as some some disaster-mongers have been trying to suggest.

Of course a repeat of the Lisbon Earthquake, (if of the same size) could also cause similar effects to the 1755 one.

Modern communication would alleviate a lot of potential loss of life as it would take around 4 hours for a Tsunami to get to Cornwall from Lisbon and modern flood defenses would also help greatly.

This advantage is slightly offset by the far larger number of people living in the areas, and the modern trend for people to want to stand and film things on their mobile phones to upload to YouTube, rather than get the hell out of the area.

There is still a potential for a fair bit of structural damage.

If the 1607 Bristol Channel floods were caused by a Tsunami, rather than a freak storm surge, then this too could happen again, but as mentioned above modern flood defenses are a lot better now than 400 years ago.

If you are a person of a highly nervous and panicky disposition, constantly worried by the remote chance freak natural disasters destroying your world then you might find it calming not to buy a house on the Somerset levels, certain coastal areas of Cornwall or Scotland.

Answer 3

According to the British Geological Survey (BGS) the UK experiences several hundred earthquakes each year, however the vast majority of these are so small they are only detected by sensitive instruments known as seismometers.

There are normally between 20 and 30 each year that are large enough to be felt by humans, but these typically don't cause much damage except for very rare occasions.

By way of example, there was an earthquake in Manchester in the year 2003 at 6:04am in the morning with a magnitude of 4.5.

For more information on UK earthquakes including some that have been powerful enough to cause damage to buildings, please see the related link.

Answer 4

No, because there's nothing in history books about it, and anyway, we hardly ever have earthquakes here, so what could set off a tsunami?

there was a tidal wave in the Bristol Channel in 1607 that was believed to have originated as a tsunami from an earthquake.

Records also show that a tsunami hit Cornwall believed to have been started by the Lisbon earthquake on 1 November 1755.

Answer 5

A possibility according to this link.

Answer 6

Yes in England in January 1607

Answer 7

yes