West Cork 'tsunami' felt as far away as France and Cornwall
The tide rushing out at Courtmacsherry. Picture: David Edwards/ West Cork Charters
Marine experts investigating freak tidal conditions that occurred in West Cork on Saturday believe they may have been caused by a significant atmospheric disturbance, the effects of which were felt as far away as France, Cornwall and Wales.
The unusual tidal activity witnessed in Union Hall and Courtmacsherry harbours on Saturday afternoon saw water levels dropping dramatically in a matter of minutes — leaving boats stranded and local people fearing a possible tsunami was heading towards them. Witnesses said water levels dropped faster and further than anyone could remember.
Dr Gerard McCarthy, oceanographer with Irish Climate Research and Analysis Unit in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, said he believed the most likely cause of the phenomenon was probably a meteotsunami rather than an earthquake or landslide.
“There was a small earthquake recorded near the Azores,” he said, “but it was likely too small and too far away to have an impact on the Irish coast to anything like the extent we saw in Union Hall and Courtmacsherry.”
According to Professor Frédéric Dias, a principal investigator with MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation co-ordinated by the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork, the events in west Cork were part of a larger anomaly affecting a wide area.
“What is interesting is that it is not a local phenomenon. It is more global, it was in fact felt in France as well.” He said scientists were currently collecting large amounts of data in an effort to understand what happened.
“It looks like it was due to an atmospheric disturbance, with effects that can be amplified locally,” he said.
Dr McCarthy said both Union Hall and Courtmacsherry harbours were regularly affected by seiching, a regular oscillation of tidal currents cause by atmospheric pressure.
“Seiching is basically water moving backwards and forwards and this happens in both of these bays normally. My best guest is that this regular seiching coincided with a dramatic and sudden change in atmospheric pressure somewhere out over the Atlantic off the coast of West Cork.
"If you imagine someone dropping a large volume of water straight down on the sea, that’s the kind of affect we are talking about. That pressure combined with the regular to and fro of water in those bays could have created a dramatic and unusual effect like the one we saw.”
Dr McCarthy said that such events do occur fairly regularly around the Irish coast but are more common during the winter.
“It’s something that can happen anywhere but if you get the right combination of factors all together you can see something quite dramatic occurring like happened along the West Cork coast at the weekend,” he said.
Dr McCarthy said that a significant atmospheric event was the likely cause as the effects were seen far away as the UK.
“It definitely had an impact, though less severe further along the Irish coast in Wexford and there is also evidence of it being felt in Wales and Cornwall so this was quite a significant event.”
Read More
Charter boat operator David Edwards, who witnessed the tidal event in Courtmacsherry, said: “The water was rushing out like a river. I’d never seen anything like it before. The first thing you think is ‘tsunami’ and to be honest if it was going any faster I think we all would have been heading for the hills.”
In Union Hall, Adrian Nowotynski was mooring his boat when the phenomenon struck.
“It was going out so fast that my boat was keeled on the bottom and so were a number of yachts and fishing trawlers and I’ve never seen that before. My first instinct was it must be an earthquake somewhere, nobody had ever seen the like of it Union Hall before,” he said.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
