Storegga Slide
Tsunami hazards on Shetland
Storegga Slide tsunami
The accent on detailed study of the sediments laid down by the sea led to the realisation in the 1980s that the northern and eastern coasts of Scotland had been struck by a major tsunami at about 6000 BC. In many areas, especially in the carselands, a layer of fine sand, deposited during the tsunami, can be found. Such a layer was first found in 1965 ( Smith et al., 1985), but its significance was not realised until later (Dawson et al., 1988), and in subsequent years many places have been found where evidence for the tsunami exists (Smith et al., 2004). It is probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that discovery of this event galvanised tsunami studies in North-West Europe, and has led to improved understanding of these phenomena. The publicity it has provided, not always welcome to scientists, has nevertheless raised public awareness and reportedly may actually have saved lives amongst foreign tourists in Phuket during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.