Scientists have issued a warning that Lake Geneva faces the risk of being hit by a tsunami again and people living in the area may be affected.
Scientists fear that a similar tsunami that hit Geneva in the sixth century and which was triggered by a rock fall could take place again. They believe that Geneva is most vulnerable to a tsunami and that such warnings should not be taken lightly.
"Today, a wave of this height would completely inundate large parts of the inner city of Geneva," the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists also stated that the rock fall that resulted in the earlier tsunami was "in no way unique".
Scientific records have also shown that large mass movements of sediment had been generated on the lake several times in the past 12,000 years and any of these movements could be the cause of the generation of tsunami waves.
The scientists, led by Katrina Kremer, from the University of Geneva, wrote: "Given that riverine sediment input is still loading on the slopes of the Rhone delta, tsunamis may well occur in Lake Geneva in the future, whether they are triggered by rockfall, earthquakes, or simply large storms, resulting in slope failure.
"Such tsunamis ... pose a direct and hitherto largely ignored threat to at least a million people living along the lake shores," they said. "Geneva is particularly vulnerable to such events, both because of its low elevation relative to the current lake level, and its location at the tip of the funnel-shaped lake."
They added: "Our study highlights that not only cities located on sea coasts and fjords are at risk from destructive tsunamis, but so are densely populated lake shores.
"We believe that the risk associated with tsunamis in lakes is currently underestimated, and that these phenomena require greater attention if future catastrophes are to be avoided."
