Todays On line Guardian (6 Dec 05) Science pages.

Scientists are finally accepting the importance of Geomythology (subject close to my own heart) as a new way of looking at Natural Disasters. This means their actually taking old folk legends into account.

Nice read, but so blatantly obvious it makes you think the 'scientific community' needs a kick up its collective fundamant. Oh yes, be glad you don't live in Seattle.

Ogre

Yes, this has always interested me too. Tales of floods etc. There was an interesting prog on tv about a year back about a huge wave that swept up the Bristol Channel and flooded the low lands in England and Wales. it happened a few hundred years ago and is now explained as a tsunami.

I love worrying people. For example if you dig almost anywhere in Scotland you can find a layer of sand, left by one Tsunami that swept Scotland and carried on across into Northern Europle.

Come to that I don't know of any civilisation that doesn't have a Flood 'Myth' !!

Did your prog have any theory on where the wave was generated ? It would have to be in the Irish Sea to just hit the channel. Don't tell me my tectonic smugness is to be shattered ?!?!?

Ogre

If I remember correctly, it was suggested that the wave was generated off the coast of Ireland. There is a book that I can recommend, though it is more than likely out of print its..... Subdue the Earth by Ralph Franklin Walworth and Geoffrey Walworth Sjostrum.
It was published in paperback by Granada.
Its a bit hit and miss but a very interesting read.