The Killer Wave of 1607

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

They repeated this on TV last night, which I had seen the last part of a few years back. An investigation into the flood which killed maybe 2000+ in the Bristol / South Wales area, and which is largely forgotten.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlgev9

[Charger]

Interesting. I had no recollection of such an event.

Did they manage to tie the wave to a certain geological event? It would look like the wave would have come from the atlantic then...maybe from the mid Atlantic ridge?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Initially popular opinion thought it was just a powerful storm surge combined with a high tide, but the evidence didn't really match that sort of event. At the end of the show when they are convinced it was a Tsunami they couldn't find the sort of subterrainean land slide which caused the flooding of Doggerland (now the North Sea) 7,000 years ago. And while not conclusively proven there is an ancient fault off the South West coast of Ireland which has shifted on occasion in recent history but only creating quakes of about 4.5 on the richter scale, but it could in theory produce a larger one which might lift the sea floor. Given the geological stability of Western Europe the fact a fault off Ireland exists was quite a surprise!

[Zzzptm]

There are a number of places of geologic stability with pre-existing faults in them. Pressure can build up on them and make some significant snaps. Check out the New Madrid fault in the Central US, that was responsible for what may have been the most massive recorded quake in North America.

[Charger]

Ah...yes...I looked that up. There indeed is a fault line off the coast of Ireland...and it is quite active even now...bunch of small quakes every now and then I see...so it is possible that area might have been the cause of the event.

[Zzzptm]

There's a Balcones Fault in the Austin area that's dormant, but it will snap with the pressure buildup one day. It's geologically due for the release (so between now and 100K years from now) and is supposed to be a 10+ when it pops.