A tsunami could affect some coastal areas of Spain in the next 30 years. Vladimir Ryabinin, secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, addressed this issue at a press conference in 2022 on Tsunami Ready, a project focused on this type of catastrophe.
He spoke about the possibility of a tsunami occurring in the Mediterranean in the coming decades, with waves over a meter high and 700 meters deep that could have serious consequences: “There is not a 100% chance of it happening, but they are very high and we have to be prepared for it”.
A single municipality in Spain is prepared for a possible tsunami. This is Chipiona, in the province of Cádiz, where several safety measures were implemented in this regard in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of the University of Cantabria.
In the Andalusian town you can see several signs that indicate the path to follow through an evacuation route in the event of a tsunami. Other security measures implemented are the installation of sirens, the creation of refuge zones, a coordination program for the security forces and the carrying out of drills. It should be noted that Chipiona is located near an active zone of tectonic plates.
Tsunami Ready is the name of a program financed by the European Union and with which UNESCO seeks to prepare coastal areas for the arrival of a tsunami.
It was launched in Europe in 2020 on the Greek island of Kos, which had been hit by the threat three years earlier. Since then, some areas of the old continent have launched security plans to be ready. In addition to Chipiona in Spain and Kos in Greece, cities and towns located in Portugal, Italy, Malta, France and Turkey have also done so.
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