Tauredunum event

The lake near Nyon, which was badly hit by the Tauredunum event in 563

The Tauredunum event in 563 was a tsunami in Lake Geneva that was triggered by a massive landslide and caused widespread destruction, killing many people along the lakeshore. According to two contemporary reports - by Gregory of Tours ( Decem libri historiarum. 4, 31) and Marius von Avenches ( Chronica ad annum 563 ) - the disaster was caused by the sliding of a mountain slope at a place called Tauredunum at the eastern end of Lake Geneva. A great wave was created that spread along the lake, sweeping the villages along the banks and hitting the city of Geneva with such force that it sloshed over the city walls and killed many residents. The wave is said to have been eight meters high in Geneva.

It is also possible that the landslide first dammed the Rhone approx. 5 km above its confluence with Lake Geneva and that this barrier later broke, creating the tidal wave.

A study published in October 2012 suggests that the Tauredunum landslide caused the sediments that had accumulated at the point where the Rhone flows into Lake Geneva to slide off. This caused a huge underwater mudslide that displaced several hundred million cubic meters of sediment and caused a tsunami that was up to 16 m high and reached the city of Geneva in about 70 minutes. There is evidence of four previous mudslides, suggesting that tsunamis may be a recurring phenomenon on Lake Geneva.

A documentary program enriched with animations, which was produced in 2018 in cooperation with Arte and Radio Télévision Suisse RTS, shows that such a catastrophe is still possible today.

Advance of the tsunami in the Tauredunum event

The likely location of the Tauredunum landslide can be seen on the far right

See also

• List of tsunamis

Web links

• Jessica Marshall: Ancient tsunami devastated Lake Geneva shoreline. In: nature.com. Nature , October 28, 2012 (English)
• Lawrence LeBlond: Historical Records Suggest Lake Geneva Is At Risk For Future Deadly Tsunami. (No longer available online.) In: redorbit.com. RedOrbit, Inc., October 30, 2012, archived from the original on November 1, 2012 . 
• Rachel Nuwer: Lake Tsunamis Happened Before and Could Happen Again. (No longer available online.) In: smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian Magazine , October 30, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 . 
• Thomas H. Maugh II: Monster tsunami in Geneva was produced by rockfall, researchers say. In: latimes.com . October 29, 2012
• Justin Favrod: Tauredunum. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 19, 2014 (French)
• Call to assess risks of Alpine lake tsunami in Austria. (No longer available online.) In: austrianindependent.com. October 31, 2012, archived from the original on February 1, 2014 . 
• ARTEde : A tsunami on Lake Geneva. on YouTube , July 25, 2020 (Documentation by Pierre-Yves Frei and Laurent Graenicher; 51:35 min .; German; introduction in French).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bruno Krusch , Wilhelm Levison (ed.): Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1,1: Gregorii Turonensis Opera. Part 1: Libri historiarum X. Hannover 1937, pp. 163–164 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized ).
2. ↑ Theodor Mommsen (ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 11: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II). Berlin 1894, p. 237 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized ).
3. ↑ Call to assess risks of Alpine lake tsunami in Austria. (No longer available online.) In: austrianindependent.com. October 31, 2012, archived from the original on February 1, 2014 ; accessed on August 18, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Justin Favrod / CN: Tauredunum. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 17, 2013 , accessed August 18, 2018 . (German).
5. ↑ ARTEde : A tsunami on Lake Geneva. on YouTube , July 25, 2020, accessed July 27, 2020.

Coordinates: 46 ° 21 '27 "  N , 6 ° 51' 7"  E ; CH1903:  554844  /  134183