A tsunami struck coastal England 400 years ago, causing the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United Kingdom, new research suggests.
The massive wave was responsible for a flood on January 30, 1607, that swamped the Bristol Channel in southwestern England, submerging more than 190 square miles (500 square kilometers) of land and killing some 2,000 people, the study says. (See a map of the U.K.)
The 1607 disaster had previously been attributed to a freak storm surge, but the authors of the new study say geological clues in the area are telltale signs of a tsunami.
The U.K. remains at risk of another such disaster, which could be much more deadly, the researchers added.
"It is certainly something that could happen again, and today the impact would be far worse," said study co-author Simon Haslett, a geographer at Britain's Bath Spa University.
"There is a real risk, and the U.K. should have a tsunami warning system."
Haslett and co-author Edward Bryant from Australia's University of Wollongong report their findings in the Journal of Geology.
Boulders the Size of Cars
Among the key evidence the researchers found were gigantic boulders scattered along the shore along the Bristol Channel, the pair said.
"We found boulders the size of small cars, stacked in chains like roof tiles," Haslett said.
"Transporting these boulders would require a prolonged current and couldn't be the work of a storm."
Co-author Bryant spotted unusual erosion features in the channel's bedrock that can't be explained by wave erosion, Haslett added.
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