Small Tsunami in English Channel

Hydro International -

A network of coastal tidal and wave monitoring stations maintained by Southampton, UK-based EMU Limited recorded the progress of the waves caused by a minor tsunami in the last week of June 2011 along the south coast.

A massive underwater landslide in the Atlantic 200 miles off the Cornish coast is believed to be the cause of a small tsunami along the south coast, creating waves of between 0.5 and 0.8 metres and resulted in abnormal tidal records at the Channel Coastal Observatory and Plymouth Coastal Observatory shore stations.

EMU Limited's principal MetOcean scientist, Mr Robin Newman, initially thought there was a malfunction with the oceanographic instruments, installed for the Southeast and Southwest Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes, due to the unusual

"There was a significant amount of variation in the observed data against what would be expected so I checked at multiple sites and they were all consistent with some sort of movement from east to west," Mr Newman said. "We subsequently realized we had recorded what appears to be a minor tsunami."

Full story...

Posted via http://batavia08.posterous.com batavia08's posterous