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Prehistoric Tsunami May Have Sunk “Atlantis”

Alex Olson Contributor
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A massive wave might have depopulated a real-life “Atlantis.”

Doggerland, a landmass once located in the North Sea between Great Britain and continental Europe could have been abandoned following a 16 ft tsunami 8,200 years ago.

Researchers from Imperial College London are presenting the evidence for the catastrophe this week at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, and have already published the theory in the journal Ocean Modelling, BBC News reports.

They claim the tsunami was caused by an undersea landslide off the coast of Norway, and that it could have reached all the way to Scotland.

Using computer simulations, the research team led by Dr. Jon Hill modeled the effects of the ancient tsunami, taking into account the position of Doggerland at the time to give the most accurate picture of the effect of the disaster on the vanished island. “We were the first ever group to model the Storegga tsunami with Doggerland in place. Previous studies have used the modern bathymetry (ocean depth),” he told BBC News.

While Doggerland at the time of the tsunami was an island, at one time it had been a bridge connecting Britain to mainland Europe, allowing hunter-gatherers to easily cross the North Sea during the last Ice Age. Sea levels began slowly rising 20,000 years ago, gradually reducing Doggerland to a marshy island smaller than Massachusetts over a period of 12,000 years.

During its heyday, the area would have been one of Europe’s best regions for hunting and fishing.

The tsunami would have been an estimated 46 feet high when it hit northeast Scotland, and 16 foot tall waves would have hit Eastern England and Doggerland, greatly disrupting any human settlements in the area.