We’re quite a privileged island when it comes to natural disasters: a week or so of snow tends to be as extreme as our weather gets. But while most Brits go about their daily lives without thinking about earthquakes or tornadoes, the doomsday preppers among us may have just been given reason to feel a little smug.
That’s because a top scientist has warned that the UK is at risk of a ‘mega tsunami’ that could hit at any time.
Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the government and founder of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, said that an enormous wave could be triggered by a ‘mass of rock the size of the Isle of Man’ falling into the Atlantic Ocean as part of a landslide on the Canary Islands.
Apparently, such a wave would take roughly six hours to reach British shores. King revealed that the cities likely to be worst hit would be those along the south coast, including Brighton, Southampton, Portsmouth, Exeter and Bournemouth. Neighbouring towns are also in a vulnerable position should a tsunami occur.
London would also suffer a lot of damage from the impact. King told My London that people in the capital ‘would get into their cars all at once to escape the city and they’d block all the roads. People wouldn’t be able to get out in time and they would essentially die in their cars.’ Cheery stuff.
King said ‘it could happen in 10,000 years’ time, but could also happen tomorrow’, though admitted that the latter scenario was unlikely. Nevertheless, he said the UK needs to do more to prepare and is encouraging greater awareness of the risk of global tsunamis.
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