Southern Spain and the eastern Mediterranean are the areas most at risk
05/07/2019 11:41
Natural hazards expert Ignacio Aguirre, a researcher at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria, has said that “there is a major tsunami threat in Spain” and warned the authorities of the importance of teaching people how to act in an event of this scale.
Southern Spain and the eastern Mediterranean have active seismicity that makes them highly prone to tsunamis. In fact, the expert says the Iberian Peninsula is at risk of such events, as has happened several times, most seriously in 1755 and most recently in 1969 and 2003, the latter in the Balearic Islands, though with no casualties.
Natural hazards expert Ignacio Aguirre, a researcher at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria, has said that “there is a major tsunami threat in Spain” and warned the authorities of the importance of teaching people how to act in an event of this scale.
Southern Spain and the eastern Mediterranean have active seismicity that makes them highly prone to tsunamis. In fact, the expert says the Iberian Peninsula is at risk of such events, as has happened several times, most seriously in 1755 and most recently in 1969 and 2003, the latter in the Balearic Islands, though with no casualties.
On Wednesday Aguirre gave a talk entitled ‘Tsunamis’ as part of the series ‘Science and experience: geological risks and society’, running until 10 July at the Santa Cruz de Bezana venue of the University of Cantabria Summer Courses.
Aguirre argues that, given the “brutal devastating power” of tsunamis, there must be preparedness strategies in place beforehand, “key preparation”, meaning “we need to know the real risk, map those risks to see which areas could be affected, and from there start educating policymakers and society as a whole about tsunami risk so that lives can be saved”.
“Knowledge is very important and there are two basic strategies for tsunamis: planning evacuation in advance, which requires risk analysis and mapping, and early warning systems, with protocols to get the alert information to the public,” the expert says.
In Spain, there is a tsunami warning centre, the National Geographic Institute, which issues alerts to the Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Emergencies, but beyond that there is no protocol for the public.
While the Lisbon earthquake was the greatest natural disaster in Europe as far as the Iberian Peninsula is concerned, it was the Indonesian tsunami that marked a turning point for the public and even the scientific community. “After the 2004 tsunami, working groups were set up and early warning systems were created for the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and the North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean, which is the one that covers Spain.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20190705/463294341632/tsunami-espana-amenaza-experto.html
