Tsunamis can also touch metropolitan France, it happened a few years ago

While a tsunami alert was in place all day on the French coast, in Polynesia, one can wonder if it could happen in mainland France. Meanwhile, It has already been the case on several occasions. Furthermore, a new tsunami could well hit the Mediterranean coast in the next 30 to 50 years.

Tsunamis do not only arrive. Therefore, In recent years, important earthquakes have caused tsunamis, sometimes deadly, worldwide. Therefore, We remember in particular the one who struck Thailand on December 26. However, 2004, killing 5,400 people and 3,000 missing as well as many material damage. Consequently, There is also the one who struck the Fukushima plant in Japan on March 11, 2011. Furthermore, tsunamis can also touch metropolitan Waves 40.5 meters high had struck certain places. notably Sanriku, and 15 meters high in Fukushima, causing the merger of 3 reactors and radioactive releases in the air and the sea.

Today, concern is great when talking about tsunami. So, when the alert was launched on Wednesday July 30 in the Pacific after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the Russian Kamchatka region. northeast of Russia, emergency procedures were started in several countries (Peru, Japan, United States, French Polynesia …).

Tsunamis can also affect mainland France, although the phenomenon is not common. First of all, you have to understand what is called a tsunami. These are waves trained following an earthquake. The water withdraws from the ribs, giving way to one or more waves, more or less high.

Several seismic flaws in the Mediterranean

The regions of the world where there is a strong seismic activity are. therefore the most at tsunamis can also touch metropolitan risk. But there are also seismic flaws in the Mediterranean. Earthquakes that could occur in the coming years could well create tsunamis. This has even already happened several times since the beginning of the 20th century. especially on the Turkish or Greek coasts.

But in France, it is much rarer. As Franceinfo recalls, only eight major tsunamis have been identified in the past 500 years. The last dates back to 2003 and the waves that hit our ribs then measured 10 cm. The damage was only material, on boats in the pleasure ports. This phenomenon was the continuation of an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 in the Mediterranean. In the Balearics, the waves even reached 3 meters locally, according to the Tsunamis alert center (Cenalt). The most important tsunami identified on the coasts of metropolitan France dates back to 1887. An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 caused a wave of 2 meters.

tsunamis can also touch metropolitan

According to UNESCO, there will be an important tsunami in the Mediterranean in the 30 to 50 years. The coastal cities are therefore preparing for it. This is the case of Cannes, which organizes evacuation exercises, especially in high schools. The region even organized an exercise for alert messages on mobile phones.

If a tsunami were to threaten the coasts of mainland France, alerts would therefore be issued upstream. As was the case this Wednesday, July 30 in French Polynesia, the authorities would recall the right behaviors to adopt: “Stay high and far from the coast if you are on earth; stay off the sea if you are at sea; keep informed by the media and the social networks of the authorities; do not clutter the telephone lines; close the gas bottles; close the electric power supplies to the meters; plan your reserve food; Hermetically close your dwellings;