June 23, 2014 Tsunami: Mediterranean and Black Seas, Spain

A series of tsunami-like waves of non-seismic origin struck several southern European countries during the period of 23 to 27 June 2014. The event caused considerable damage from Spain to Ukraine.This is the first documented case of a chain of destructive meteorological tsunamis occurring over a distance of thousands of kilometres. A chain of destructive tsunami-like events took place during the period 23-27 June 2014 in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, affecting countries from Spain to Ukraine. A few hours after midnight on 22/23 June, 1-meter tsunami-like oscillations were observed in Ciutadella Inlet on coast of the Balearic Islands (Spain). On 25 and 26 June, several tsunami-like waves with heights of up to 3 m struck a number of bays and harbours in the central and south Adriatic Sea. The strongest oscillations occurred in the morning of 25 June at the head of the 8-km long Vela Luka Bay. (reference #12128)

The chain of strong tsunami-like events of 22-27 June 2014 was unique: hazardous waves were observed in many locations in the Mediterranean and Black seas. The first site to record this event was Ciutadella Harbour, Menorca Island (Balearic Islands, Spain), where 10.5 min sea level oscillations with heights up to 1 m occurred during the night hours of 22/23 June. Two days later, on 25 June, tsunami-like waves with heights up to 3 m hit several bays in the Adriatic Sea (Croatia), and in the evening hours of the same day, Mazara del Vallo harbour on the southwestern coast of Sicily (Italy). On the following day, 26 June, tsunami-like waves with maximum heights of ~1 m were again observed in the Adriatic Sea and also on the coasts of Greece and Turkey. Finally, on 27 June, a sudden 1.5 m solitary wave swept beaches in Odessa (Ukraine) on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea. Substantial oscillations were also observed at a number of other sites along the Black Sea coast. (reference #12544)

A 2014 event in Odessa, analyzed using satellite imagery, revealed convective clouds and typical synoptic patterns, both indicative of AGWs (Sepic, Rabinovich, & Sytov, 2018). This event was part of a series of destructive meteotsunamis spanning thousands of kilometers across the Mediterranean and Black Sea, where a synoptic pattern favorable to meteotsunami generation was tracked propagating eastward over several days (Sepic, Vilibic, Rabinovich,&Monserrat, 2015), coincident with meteotsunami occurrences over the area. Twelve people injured, of which two adults and four children taken to a hospital. (reference #14271)