A massive tsunami smashed Mediterran-ean shores some 8,000 years ago when a giant chunk of volcano fell into the sea, researchers say. Waves up to 165 feet (50 meters) high swept the eastern Mediterranean, triggered by a landslide on Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, according to the new study. The research team says the natural disaster likely destroyed ancient communities, with a series of killer waves hitting the eastern Mediterranean coastline from Italy to Egypt. Italian researchers based their findings on geological clues and evidence of a hastily abandoned Stone Age fishing settlement in Israel. Maria Teresa Pareschi and colleagues at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Pisa estimated the tsunami's strength by modeling the impact of the landslide from Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe. The waves would have reached heights of about 165 feet (50 meters) off southern Italy, the team says, with a sea surge reaching 43 feet (13 meters) swamping parts of Greece and Libya. Smaller waves hitting coasts farther away would also have had devastating power, according to Pareschi, who led the study. "A tsunami wave height of a few meters can penetrate deeply inland," she said.
Well now I think that this is not cool because if this really happened then it could happen again and that wouldn't be so good.
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