June 27, 2011 Tsunami: Plymouth, England, United Kingdom

On 27 June 2011 a tsunami struck the Yealm Estuary, near Plymouth, and anomalous tides were experienced from Portugal to the Straits of Dover. These events were caused by a meteotsunami driven by convective cells extending from the Bay of Biscay into the English Channel. (reference #10738)

Underwater landslide likely cause of 'mild tsunami', 29 June 2011 Last updated at 06:33 ET. BBC News article. A "mild tsunami" along the South West coast was probably caused by an underwater landslide, a coastal expert has said. The unusual tidal surge struck the Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Hampshire coastline on Monday morning. There were reports of rivers changing direction, fish leaping out of water and hair standing on end due to static... Roland Stewart from Millbrook, near Plymouth, said: "It was quite violent in a way, my dinghy was moving around with the movement of the water and I just wondered what the hell was going on.... within 15 minutes it was all over.".. Dr Davidson, an associate professor in coastal processes, told BBC Spotlight: "[Surges] are quite rare and it's probably not a tidal phenomenon. "It's probably more likely to be a tsunami of some kind, obviously it's quite mild. "It's probably not due to an earthquake, which is the normal source. "It's probably more likely to be a sub-marine landslide." According to the Tidal Gauge Anomaly measure, which records the difference between the forecast tide and the actual tide, the anomaly on Monday morning in Newlyn, Cornwall was 0.2m (0.7ft), in Plymouth 0.3m (1ft) and in Portsmouth 0.4m (1.3ft). The MET Office in Exeter said it did not think anything in the weather could have caused the change in the tidal pattern. The British Geological Survey said there was no seismic activity in UK waters over the weekend. (reference #9478)

English Channel 2011. The tsunami of the 27 June 2011 is well documented, with first-hand accounts, weather radar imagery, tide gauge data and a video from the Yealm Estuary. Together with the meteorological data presented by Tappin et al. (2013), this event is the meteotsunami we know most about from generation to impact. The conclusion of Tappin et al. (2013) was that the tsunami resulted from thundery cells located off the Bay of Biscay off Brittany, with earlier contributions from convective cells located over Portugal and later in the English Channel. (reference #14269)