The Storegga tsunami was one of the biggest natural disasters in human history. It was caused the Storegga slide that happened around 6200 BCE (during the Mesolithic). The tsunami hit parts of Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Scotland and Britain; it also devastated an area called Doggerland (that is now beneath the North Sea), which connected Britain to mainland Europe. Thousands of people died and had their lands devastated as a result of the tsunami.
The tsunami was the result of a landslide that happened underwater, the first Storegga slide. There are a number of theories about what caused this landslide. One of them suggests that since the end of the last Ice Age, layers of sediment began to built up close to the coast of Norway. Then, an earthquake triggered the landslide that led to the tsunami.
Scientists estimate that waves were between 3 to 6 meters high at the Scottish coast, 10 to 12 meters high at the Norwegian coast, and as high as 20 meters at the coasts of the Shetland Islands and Faroe Islands. Evidence for the tsunami has been found in layers of sediment deposited at the same time of the tsunami, suggesting that they were deposited by the Storegga tsunami.
There were other two, minor slides that happened 3700 BCE and 200 BCE at the same area, the three underwater landslides are known as the Storegga slides. They left a scar in the seabed that can still be seen. Since the tsunami, sea level has risen. Areas such as Doggerland are underwater, and so is most of the area hit by the Storegga tsunami.
Computer simulation of the tsunami and the areas it hit:
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