On 30 January 1607 a huge wave, over 7 meters high, swept up the River Severn, flooding the land on either side. The wall of water reached as far in land as Bristol and Cardiff. It swept away everything in its path, devastating communities and killing thousands of people in what was Britain's greatest natural disaster. Historian and geographer Mike Hall pieces together the contemporary accounts and the surviving physical evidence to present, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of what actually happened on that fateful day and its consequences. He also examines the possible causes of the disaster: was it just a storm surge or was it, in fact, the only recorded instance of a tsunami in Britain.

Following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, and the impact on nuclear power facilities, coastal communities around the world are re-evaluating the potential risk from tsunami hazard. Although the coastline of Britain has experienced few large tsunami some have occurred, such as tsunami generated by the prehistoric Storegga submarine slide and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Also, in southwest Britain, a flood in 1607 inundated lowlands along 540km of the Bristol Channel and the Severn Estuary coast, killing approximately 2000 people and causing much damage. The source of the 1607 flood is disputed, being caused either by a storm surge or tsunami. Evidence for two earthquakes in 1607 is presented here for the first time, suggesting this was a seismically active period. This has relevance for future planning of nuclear power facilities in the Bristol Channel, which is currently the location of the Hinkley, Oldbury, and (now decommissioned) Berkeley nuclear power stations.

Where oceans, land and atmosphere meet, three dynamic forces contribute to the physical and ecological evolution of coastlines. Coasts are responsive systems, dynamic with identifiable inputs and outputs of energy and material. In chapters illustrated and furnished with topical case studies from around the world, this book establishes the importance of coasts within a systems framework - waves, tides, rivers and sea-level change all play critical roles in the evolution of our coasts.

A tidal bore is a series of waves propagating upstream as the tidal flow turns to rising. It forms during spring tide conditions when the tidal range exceeds 4 to 6 m and the flood tide is confined to a narrow funnelled estuary. Its existence is based upon a fragile hydrodynamic balance between the tidal amplitude, the freshwater river flow conditions and the river channel bathymetry, and it is shown that this balance may be easily disturbed by changes in boundary conditions and freshwater inflow. This book demystifies the physics of a tidal bore and it thoroughly documents the tidal bores on our planet with reliable and accurate information. It aims to cultivate a passion for a beautiful, but fragile geophysical process, with in-depth updated content and by over 190 illustrations and photographs.

Comprehensively describes the nature and process of tsunami, for students and researchers, and general public.

This Hugo Award–winning disaster epic from the Science Fiction Grand Master “ranks among [his] most ambitious works” (SFSite). The Wanderer inspires feelings of pure terror in the hearts of the five billion human beings inhabiting Planet Earth. The presence of an alien planet causes increasingly severe tragedies and chaos. However, one man stands apart from the mass of frightened humanity. For him, the legendary Wanderer is a mere tale of bizarre alien domination and human submission. His conception of the Wanderer bleeds into unrequited love for the mysterious “she” who owns him.

The book encompasses a set of papers on meteorological tsunamis covering various aspects on this rare but potentially destructive multiresonant phenomenon. Altogether an editorial and 15 contributions are part of this book; eight of the contributions deal with different aspects of meteotsunamis along the U.S. East Coast and in the region of the Great Lakes, including one paper introducing a new methodology in meteotsunami research. Seven more papers are documenting meteotsunamis in various coastal areas of the world oceans. All continents, except Antarctica, have been covered, with the authors representing 11 countries. Previously Published in Natural Hazards, Volume 74, No. 1, 2014