Editing Storegga Slide (section)

==Impact on human populations==
[[File:Storegga tsunami deposits, Montrose basin (Maryton).jpg|thumb|Storegga tsunami deposits (grey upper layer), bracketed by peat (dark brown layers), taken at Maryton on the Montrose Basin, Scotland]]
At, or shortly before, the time of the Second Storegga Slide, a [[land bridge]] known to archaeologists and geologists as [[Doggerland]] linked [[Great Britain|Britain]], [[Denmark]] and the [[Netherlands]] across what is now the southern [[North Sea]].  This area is believed to have included a coastline of lagoons, marshes, mudflats and beaches, and to have been a rich hunting, fowling and fishing ground populated by [[Mesolithic]] human cultures.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/title_89282_en.html |title=Bryony Coles, "Doggerland Project", University of Exeter Department of Archaeology |access-date=2014-05-04 |archive-date=2015-08-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150817003759/http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/title_89282_en.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=gaffney>[http://livebettermagazine.com/article/global-warming-and-lost-lands-understanding-the-effects-of-sea-level-rise/  Vincent Gaffney, "Global Warming and the Lost European Country"]</ref><ref>[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team-specials/4od#3591277 Tony Robinson, "Britain's Stone Age Tsunami", ''Time Team specials'', Channel 4 Television, 30 May 2013]</ref>

Although Doggerland was permanently submerged through a gradual rise in sea level, it has been hypothesized that coastal areas of both Britain and mainland Europe, extending over areas which are now submerged, would have been temporarily inundated by a tsunami triggered by the Storegga Slide.  This event would have had a catastrophic impact on the Mesolithic population at the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bernhard Weninger |title=The catastrophic final flooding of Doggerland by the Storegga Slide tsunami |journal=Documenta Praehistorica |volume=35 |pages=1–24 |date=Dec 31, 2008 |doi=10.4312/dp.35.1 |url=http://sprint.clivar.org/soes/staff/ejr/Rohling-papers/2008-Weninger%20et%20al%20Documenta%20Praehistorica.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325085427/http://sprint.clivar.org/soes/staff/ejr/Rohling-papers/2008-Weninger%20et%20al%20Documenta%20Praehistorica.pdf |archive-date=2013-03-25 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Rincon|first=Paul|title=Prehistoric North Sea 'Atlantis' ht by 5m tsunami|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27224243|work=BBC News|date=May 2014|access-date=1 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="HillCollins2014">{{cite journal|last1=Hill|first1=Jon|last2=Collins|first2=Gareth S.|last3=Avdis|first3=Alexandros|last4=Kramer|first4=Stephan C.|last5=Piggott|first5=Matthew D.|title=How does multiscale modelling and inclusion of realistic palaeobathymetry affect numerical simulation of the Storegga Slide tsunami?|journal=Ocean Modelling|volume=83|year=2014|pages=11–25|issn=1463-5003|doi=10.1016/j.ocemod.2014.08.007|bibcode=2014OcMod..83...11H|doi-access=free|hdl=10044/1/18934|hdl-access=free}}</ref> It is estimated that up to a quarter of the Mesolithic population of Britain lost their lives.<ref>{{cite news |title=How a giant tsunami devastated Britain's Atlantis |last=Keys |first=David |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/tsunami-britain-atlantis-6200-bc-archaeology-a9622591.html |work=The Independent |date=16 July 2020}}</ref>

A 2021 study found that about {{Convert|370|miles|abbr=on|order=flip}} of Scotland's northern and eastern coastline were affected, with water encroaching {{Convert|18|miles|abbr=on|order=flip}} inland. With present-day populations and sea levels, a similar event today could devastate and destroy seafront and port areas of Arbroath, Stonehaven, Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick, and Montrose.<ref name=brooks>{{Cite news |title=Ancient tsunami could have wiped out Scottish cities today, study finds |last=Brooks |first=Libby |work=The Guardian |date=4 June 2021 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/ancient-tsunami-could-have-wiped-out-scottish-cities-today-study-finds}}</ref>

While the tsunami caused by the Second Storegga Slide would have been devastating for those within the run-in zone, ultimately the tsunami was neither universally catastrophic nor the reason behind the inundation of the last vestiges of Doggerland.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Walker|first1=James|last2=Gaffney|first2=Vincent|last3=Fitch|first3=Simon|last4=Muru|first4=Merle|last5=Fraser|first5=Andrew|last6=Bates|first6=Martin|last7=Bates|first7=Richard|date=2020|title=A great wave: the Storegga tsunami and the end of Doggerland?|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=94|issue=378|pages=1409–1425|doi=10.15184/aqy.2020.49|issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free|hdl=10454/18239|hdl-access=free}}</ref>