October 17, 1883 Tsunami: SW England, United Kingdom

Tsunami origin Unknown, but linked to a local storm. During the construction of the Severn Tunnel, a railway tunnel under the Severn Estuary, “a great tidal-wave burst over the whole of the low-lying ground…as a solid wall of water 5 or 6 feet [1.52-1.83 meters] high” on 17 October 1883 (T. A. Walker [1891] 1990, 172). During a nighttime gale, the 19 October Times reported, “between 8 and 9 o’clock a huge tidal wave, rolling in from the [ Bristol] channel at high tide, covered all the low-lying land.” The wave flooded the tunnel, and one construction worker drowned. The time of the high spring tide was 748 p.m., so the wave arrived as the tide was ebbing. The inundation was clearly linked to poor weather and flooding along the South Wales coast, affecting the shore from Cardiff to Chepstow (Zong and Tooley 2003). (reference #14268)