Mini-Tsunami Could Be Sign of Times to Come on African Coast

[Sally Furniss]

Mini-Tsunami Could Be Sign of Times to Come on African Coast

A series of unusual tides on South Africa’s West Coast could be the result of a “mini-tsunami,” according to news reports this week. The news of the strange tides, which reportedly caused waves that damaged factories in St. Helena Bay, corresponded with an unrelated prediction by environmental experts that Africa’s coast could be underwater by 2099.

South African experts Monday told reporters they suspected a small, but effective Atlantic Ocean tsunami was responsible for wreaking tidal havoc in several West Coast locales over the weekend, according to News24.com, a South African online news site.

It’s possible the tsunami could be the cause of similar phenomena on the Southern and Eastern Cape, as well, experts stated.

Coincidentally, environmental experts attending a working meeting of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Ghana on Monday warned climate issues and melt from the Greenland ice cap could swamp large portions of Africa’s coast before the end of the century.

Current sea-level rise of about two centimeters per year is putting much of Nigeria, as well as the capitals of Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania on track for future flooding, according to a U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) release.

http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/dr/currentdr.html#2

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Mini-Tsunami Could Be Sign of Times to Come on African Coast

WEST AFRICA: Coastline to be submerged by 2099

<table style="border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(187, 187, 187) rgb(187, 187, 187) rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: 1px; margin: 2px 5px 8px 0px; padding: 5px; width: 120px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="padding-top: 3px;" align="right">
Photo: Dulue Mbachu/IRIN </td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: Tahoma;" class="ImgCreditCaption">Slum housing in the Ebute Metta district of Lagos, Nigeria, September 2007</td></tr></tbody></table>ACCRA, 25 August 2008 (IRIN) - Swathes of West Africa?s coastline extending from the orange dunes in Mauritania to the dense tropical forests in Cameroon will be underwater by the end of the century as a direct consequence of climate change, environmental experts warn.

"The coastline [as it is now] will be completely changed by the end of this century because the sea level is rising along the coast at around two centimetres every year," said Stefan Cramer, Nigeria director of Heinrich Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO.

Even where urban areas appear unscathed, sea level rise will still challenge towns and cities by threatening the underground water supplies from which millions of people across the region draw their water.

"[Increasing salinity] will make the ground water undrinkable and unsuitable for agricultural purposes. The result will be food and water insecurity," agreed George Awudi, Ghana Programme Coordinator for the environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth.

The effects of sea-level rise will be most ?dramatic? in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos which is just five metres above sea level, with some parts of the city lying below sea-level, Cramer said.

The flooding is likely be most severe in Lagos because of its position at the southern end of the Gulf of Guinea where stronger tropical storms from the South Atlantic create storm surges up to three metres high, Cramer said. He estimates that most of the 15 million inhabitants of Lagos will be displaced and Nigeria?s southern Delta region where oil installations are located will also be swamped.

Other major urban centres in West Africa which experts have identified as at risk of flooding are Banjul in The Gambia, Bissau in Guinea Bissau, and Nouakchott in Mauritania. All three capitals are at or close to sea level.

<table style="border: 1px solid rgb(51, 102, 153); margin: 2px 8px 8px; padding: 5px; width: 220px; background-color: rgb(170, 187, 220);" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: tahoma; size: 12px;" align="left" bgcolor="#aabbdc">...It's all due to climate change - the greenhouse gas emissions result in global warming the subsequent meling of the Greeland ice cap... </td></tr></tbody></table>Blame

Environmentalists blame the gradual melting of the 3,000 metre-thick Greenland ice cap in the A rctic as being responsible for the coastal erosion along the Coast of Guinea. Greenland is three times the size of Nigeria and its emptying into the Atlantic causes a rise in the sea-level.

"It is all due to climate change - the greenhouse gas emissions result in global warming and subsequent melting of the Greenland ice cap," Cramer said.

Compounding the situation in West Africa, in August 2007 a tropical storm 5,000 kilometres off the coast caused a shift in the strong currents that run near the Nigerian coast and destroyed a protective sand bar.

The solution

Environmental experts have different solutions to the problem.

"I think the best way out for the moment is devising simpler and more cost effective solutions such as how to preserve towns and villages under threat and preventing sea water intrusion", the director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer said.

"The sensible option is moving to higher ground which is a tough option especially for Nigeria as it means giving up its economic centres in Lagos and its oil installations in the Delta", Cramer said.

But Awudi at Friends of the Earth described relocation as an "unthinkable option? due to its economic, social and cultural implications.

"Every solution to a problem must focus on the major cause of that problem and in this case greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries which are responsible for sea-level rise must be effectively tackled," Awudi said.

"The industrialised countries should take proactive steps in curtailing their emissions responsible for climate change which will have a positive impact on sea-level rise," he said.

However according to Cramer even if the industrialised countries do stop their greenhouse gas emissions, the trend of rising sea levels would continue unchanged for another 50 to 100 years.

The experts all made their comments on the sidelines of a UNFCCC working meeting in the Ghana capital Accra where representatives of 150 countries have gathered to continue preparatory negotiations for a landmark climate change conference due to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009 where a successor to the Kyoto Treaty is to be signed.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79986

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Mini-Tsunami Could Be Sign of Times to Come on African Coast

Experts probe 'mini tsunami'
25/08/2008 07:55 - (SA)

Jana Breytenbach, Die Burger
Cape Town - A mini tsunami may be the reason for the sudden rise and fall of the sea level along the West Coast over the last few days.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) received reports that the sea level in Hout Bay, St Helena Bay, Saldanha Bay and Lambert's Bay changed suddenly three times on Thursday.
In Hout Bay, the water level first fell by a metre and then rose again by the same amount in the space of 20 minutes.
Factories were damaged by the high waves in St Helena Bay.
The NSRI called in the help of Geoff Brundrit, a retired professor of the University of Cape Town's Oceanography Department, to help investigate the phenomenon.

Seismic activity
Brundrit said the readings of a hydrographic monitor in Walvis Bay indicated seismic activity in the Atlantic Ocean, which could cause a tsunami.
Volunteers at the NSRI office in Mykonos also reported a phenomenon known as Proxigean Tide, which can lead to flooding.
Experts expect the next tide of this nature on December 12.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said they were waiting to receive the readings on the hydrographic monitors in Luderitz, Port Nolloth and Saldanha Bay to see whether those monitors gave similar results to the Walvis Bay and Simon's Town hydrographic monitors.
"We are also waiting to hear from Ascension Island, St Helena Island and Rio de Janeiro to find out whether they have experienced similar circumstances.
"No one has been injured or killed. We have not been informed of any major damage but we believe that what was experienced on the West Coast on Thursday was a mini tsunami," Lambinon said.

Southern, Eastern Cape affected
There is also a possibility that the mini tsunami could affect beaches in the Southern and Eastern Cape, Tisha Steyn reported.
"There was abnormal movement in the water on Saturday," Ray Farnham said on Sunday.
"If you don't specifically look at it, you won't see it. There was a warning that the water level would be different to that given in the tide table, but it's nothing serious."
For example, if it was supposed to be low tide at 12:00, it was low tide but there were fluctuations.
"There were also larger swells, as if a large ship was travelling past, but we were unable to determine what caused it.
"No damage occurred."
The heads of the NSRI stations in Witsand, Stillbaai, Mossel Bay and Wilderness did not notice anything unusual.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2381892,00.html#