Did a tsunami more than 8,000 years ago put paid to the last
inhabitants of Doggerland, a submerged land mass which once connected north
Germany to East Anglia?
Around 10,000 years ago, it was still one of the richest
hunting grounds in Europe, but 2,000 years later, it had become a low-lying,
marshy island about the size of Wales. That was around the time of the Storegga
tsunami – generated by a massive landslide beneath the sea off the coast of
Norway.
Fishing boats operating around Doggerland have turned up ancient human
artefacts, but none date from later than the tsunami. The tsunami theory of Doggerland’s
end is based on computer simulations of the effect of the Storegga slide, but
some scientists argue the area had already been abandoned before the disaster.
Some, though not all, scientists also maintain that the
deadliest flood ever suffered by mainland Britain, the Severn Flood of January
30, 1607, was also caused by a tsunami. It is estimated that 2,000 people, and
thousands of livestock animals were killed.
My A Disastrous
History of the World has now been translated into Romanian - http://www.polirom.ro/catalog/carte/cele-mai-mari-dezastre-din-istoria-omenirii-5358/
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