National Geographic documentary on tsunamis

Dr Sue Dawson, a lecturer in Geography, is flying to the Shetland Islands in July to film a documentary for National Geographic on tsunamis. The 90 minute special, produced by London-based Wall-to-Wall Productions, is looking at the Storegga tsunami, which swept the northern Atlantic c 8000 years ago, and the possible impact it had on Stone Age Settlements. The impact of a vast submarine landslide off the continental slope of western Norway, led to an area the size of mainland Scotland sliding to great depths in the North Sea. This led to a series of devastating tsunami waves moving at the speed of modern jet aircraft across the Northern Atlantic and North Sea. In particular the program will consider the impact on Doggerland, the area of dry land in the central North Sea, and the possible settlements that may have existed around the coastline at that time. Recent research by Birmingham archaeologists have uncovered river valleys and landscapes under the North Sea in Doggerland and the possibility of areas suitable for coastal settlement by Mesolithic people.

Sue has worked extensively in the Shetland Islands with colleagues from Aberdeen and Norway on the identification of sediments left behind by the tsunami and will examine deposits at Maggies Kettle Loch on Sullom Voe, mainland Shetland. The team will then travel to the Balmoral estate on Deeside to look at the legacy of glaciation in the spectacular landscape around Lochnagar.

The time of the tsunami was a time of unprecedented geographical hazard in terms of rapid sea level rise as a result of the worldwide melting of ice sheets as well as the major tsunami event. The programme will consider the impacts on low-lying coastal communities of the time throughout the North Sea basin.

Read more in Contact Magazine - page 20.