THE IMPACTS OF THE LISBON 1755 TSUNAMI EVENT ON IRELAND'S COASTS: FACT, SPECULATION AND FANTASY

Lecture by

Dr Robert Devoy

Thursday September 21 2023

at

8.30pm

in

Clonakilty GAA Club, Ahamilla

During the early hours of 1 November 1755, Lisbon was affected by a very powerful earthquake that violently shook the western and southern parts of Portugal. Some forty minutes after the earthquake, a large tsunami followed consisting of multiple waves which engulfed Lisbon. The tsunami-train reached Brazil to the west, North Africa to the south and Britain and Ireland to the north.

This illustrated lecture will look at the 1755 event, the different sites and evidences (e.g., historical, geomorphological etc.) for the event on Ireland's coasts, together with issues of its past and future significance for coasts (both in Ireland and globally).

Dr Robert Devoy, is Professor in Geography (emeritus), University College Cork (UCC) and Prof. of Physical Geography, UCC. He was formerly Head of the School of Geography, Archaeology and Planning in UCC and is currently a member of the Climate Council of Ireland’s, Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Committee; a research associate at the Geography Department, UCC; a senior scientist, technical advisor and consultant in the Centre for Marine and Energy-based Research Ireland (MaREI), Environmental Research Institute, UCC. He was a lead member of the Nobel Prize awarded Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR4 Working Group II and was a Reviewer in IPCC AR5 (2013-2014). His research career has been involved primarily within the fields of coastal science, sea-level changes and coastal management. He retired from UCC in 2011, to continue coastal research studies in MaREI, UCC and to develop The Coastal Atlas of Ireland, published by Cork University Press in Sept. 2021.