The Massive Tsunami that Hit the British Isles; The Storegga Slide

Approximately 8,000 years ago, a wall of water up to 25 meters or 82 feet in height raced across large swaths of the British Isles. This tsunami advanced across the landscape at a fast rate, reaching as much as 80 kilometers or 50 miles inland. What had just occurred was the largest tsunami to hit the region in the last 10,000 years. It was not caused by a major earthquake, but rather one of the planet's largest submarine landslides. Known as the Storegga slide, it occurred off the coast of Norway.

Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google

0:00 6150 BC Tsunami
0:26 The Storegga Slide
1:09 Slide Area
1:48 Ice Age Climate
2:08 Build Up of Sediments
3:42 Reports of Further Tsunamis

Citations:
[1] TY - BOOK
AU - Long, David
PY - 2015/12/31
SP -
T1 - A catalogue of tsunamis reported in the UK
ER -

[GeologyHub]

The area of this massive landslide was (relatively) recently explored further to determine if there was any risk of a new gas field (to be captured) generating another slide. For many years, it was thought by some that catastrophic expansion of methane clathrate generated the slide. This was later disproven however with more recent evidence. I agree with the found results that developing a new gas field in the area will NOT trigger another slide.

[michaelgeisdorf]

That was very informative. I wish he would have talked about the huge flood cataracts that formed from the North Sea overwash that permanently opened the English Channel. They are still present under water and are proof the tsunami flood that took place was truly cataclysmic in size. It’s worth a video all on its own!

[nortyfiner]

I've been in the North Sea and crossed the Arctic Circle. Trust a sailor on this: compared to the normal everyday weather in the North Sea, the one in a zillion chance of another Storegga Slide should be the absolute last of your worries. Beaufort 10+ storms blowing up out of a clear sky in a matter of hours. 50 foot seas. A Nimitz class aircraft carrier's flight deck is about 80 feet from the waterline; we had rogue waves washing over it. Scariest sea conditions I've ever seen.

[mikethescotsman]

In The smith museum in Stirling you can find whale bones from this tsunami. Blue whales up to 100 feet in length were brought inland by the tsunami and dumped around Stirling. There were flint tools discovered among the bones.

[ironfistdave]

Wow excellent video most people will never know about this Thanks alot

[markstott]

Thanks for covering the Storegga Slide and Tsunami. I think I asked for this sometime in the last 12 months.
I find it fascinating that Britain was inundated in this way. It cannot have done Doggerland much good either.

[bluemoon]

And you can find seashells 1000 ft up on the mountains of Australia from the landslide that happened on Molokai, Hawaii . 🌊 .

[RoseNZieg]

i recalled the first time i saw the sea floor map of the english channel and the surrounding areas. i thought that it looked like a huge underwater landslide/tsunami combo carved out the area at one point. i was glad to hear that science worked in favor of that hypothesis.

[rickkearn]

As a layman and subscriber to this channel, I think it would be of great interest to see a GH presentation of all the known potential submarine large landslide sites and the geology community's current assessment of the risk levels they pose. Cheers.

[rogeredrinn]

Awesome topic. Massive amount of research on your part. Furthermore your graphics simplify a complex topic and make it understandable for non-geologist. Thank you!!!!

[mkingArt]

It's astounding to think that an event like this, that would happen in a relatively short time, could have wiped out an entire culture, it's people and it's memory such that we will never know they were here at all.

[aldenconsolver]

This program has gotten so good that nowadays I click the Like button before it even starts. Your work is excellent sir and much much appreciated 🙂

[weepingscorpion]

My home country of the Faroe Islands is geologically very inactive these days so it's nice that they get a mention whenever they do appear in bigger events that have taken place. So thanks for the shout-out. :)

[edwardlulofs]

I've heard of that. It was good to hear your description of it.

[JackMellor]

I was aware of this when they aired a documentary about the historic Bristol Channel floods of 1607 in south west England. The documentary explored a theory that the great flood which swept up the Bristol Channel and devastated the low lying counties of Somerset, Gloucestershire and South Wales killing an estimated 2, 000 people, was caused by a tsunami, triggered by an ancient fault line off the Irish coast.
It stemmed from comparisons to a storm surge in 1981 in the same area and how in the 1607 flood the water was much higher than 1981, that rocks near cliff edges in the estuary were dramatically pointing away from the sea, and particularly the description in a journal/pamphlet at the time that the flood had the appearance of arrows being shot forth from the oncoming water (which the scientists in the documentary compared to the Papua New Guinea tsunami in 1998 in which the waves looked like they were sparkling i.e. like arrows being fired.
It’s more recently been proven that the 1607 flood was more likely a massive storm surge, due to known tide heights that day, the likely weather, the extent of the flooding, and the fact that other coastal regions of the UK were flooded.

The British Isles (the islands of Great Britain and Ireland) are blessed to sit on a fairly safe geological area, but we must remember our past to know that destructive events have occurred and could happen again.
We also have a fair share of earthquakes, often triggered by faults in ancient rocks that underpin whole counties, or strike slip faults many kilometres under the ground, as was the case in 2008 in the county of Lincolnshire in the East Midlands, when the little town of Market Rasen was hit by a 5.2 (Richter scale) quake with a duration of 10 seconds. I live in the East Midlands, about 60 miles from Market Rasen in the county of Staffordshire, and I remember my cousin telling me that his bearded dragon was freaking out before the shock of the quake hit us, although by the time the shock reached us it was very diminished but people in my town could feel it.

[MseeBMe]

Fantastic video! Very well presented and explained!

Thank you 🙏

[Mostly_Harmless]

A followup video on Doggerland (why it was sinking before this happened) and how the Storegga Slide impacted it would be very helpful. Are there other big tsunamis that were that big in geologically recent times? How did the Christmas tsunami in Sumatra 2004 compare? I’m waiting for your definitive video on the 9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes/tsunamis with the warning for us in OR, WA, BC and N CA that’s due to hit any day.

[frzferdinand]

Very informative. Alongside your volcano series, geologic oddity series, and impact crater series, could you perhaps do a major earthquake series? Discussing major historical and prehistoric earthquakes.

[thewakeup]

I've always wondered what those weird domes to the southwest of the Faroe Islands are. I've checked online and wasn't able to find anything.

[rwthesketh]

Love your work GH. The post glacial innundation of the North Sea and the creation of the English Channel is fascinating, would love to see more. Also curious about the Laacher See :).