Scientists study Swiss lake tsunamis (BBC)

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Vienna

How do you prepare for tsunamis that come only every 1,000 years or so?

This is the issue Swiss geoscientists are wrestling with as they study the country's big lakes.

Some of these water bodies around the Alps have been known to experience huge waves that were driven by sub-surface landslides, which were themselves triggered by earthquakes.

The researchers' work indicates such hazards still exist but the likelihood of future events is very small.

"These incidents happen much less frequently than flooding or avalanches, which makes tsunamis a very hard-to-grasp hazard that is simply not in the minds of the population. But as geoscientists we have a duty to look at the problem and to let people know the risks," explained Prof Flavio Anselmetti from the University of Bern.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27196759




A similar event occurred in Alaska in 1958: http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml