Storegga Disaster: Massive Tsunami May Have Devastated Stone Age Community in Northwest Europe 8,000 Years Ago

A new study has revealed that a prehistoric tsunami over 8,000 years ago may have devastated Stone Age coastal communities.

Prehistoric Mega Tsunami

Known as the Storegga tsunami, this event affected a large part of northern Europe and beyond. It left traces of disaster in the form of sediment deposits in areas as far as northern England, north of Norway, eastern Greenland, and western Scotland. It also reached the Shetland Islands, an archipelago over 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Scottish mainland.

Experts assumed that the tsunami occurred between 8,120 and 8,175 years ago. It was also believed that a huge submarine landslide off the coast of western Norway generated waves of up to 40 feet (12 meters) in height along the Norwegian coast and 10-20 feet (3 to 6 meters) in mainland Britain. In the Shetland Islands, the waves are thought to have reached as high as 65 feet (20 meters).

The tsunami coincided with an obvious decline in the populations of large coastal communities who lived nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyles in northern Britain during the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period. But despite extensive evidence of the tsunami over a wide area of the North Sea, there is still a lack of research that quantifies the impact of the event on Stone Age communities in the region. In fact, only very little is known about the effects of prehistoric tsunamis on contemporary populations in general.

Evidence of Annihilation

A team of researchers attempted to assess the impact the tsunami event might have had on populations living at the time. According to study author Patrick Sharrocks, their work is one the first attempts to directly link the Storegga tsunami to its effects on Stone Age people.

The result of their study is discussed in the paper "Evaluating the impact of the Storegga tsunami on Mesolithic communities in Northumberland."

In cooperation with Jon Hill from the University of York, Sharrocks used a supercomputer to model the Storegga tsunami and assess its potential impacts on the ancient comm living in the region. They specifically examined the impacts of the tsunami on the coast of modern-day Northumberland, a region in northeast England bordering Scotland.

The coast of Northumberland is home to Howick, one of Britain's most significant Mesolithic sites. It is located within a resource-rich location on a river estuary a few hundred feet from the coast. After collecting evidence of extensive hazelnut collection, the researchers suggest that this area was occupied at least during the autumn and winter, although it is also possible that the inhabitants lived there all year round.

It is possible that humans inhabited Howick before the tsunami disaster, but it was likely to have been occupied when the event happened. Prior research unveiled a sediment deposit near the site that the tsunami may have produced. This deposit could represent a rare piece of evidence that can help experts understand the direct impacts of the tsunami on Stone Age people, although its origin remains unclear.

In this latest study, Sharrocks and Hill discovered that the tsunami could have inundated the site, thus forming the sediment deposit, but only if the wave struck the coast at high tide. The models also suggest high mortality rates at Howick as a direct result of the tsunami. The mortality estimates varied, but it could have reached 100% for ancient inhabitants within the resource-rich intertidal zone.

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