Ireland is to develop an early-warning system for tsunamis as part of an international project spearheaded by Unesco.
A national inter-departmental committee is to be formed, involving several Government departments and agencies, including Met Éireann, the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), the Marine Institute and the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS).
Unesco's international oceanographic commission (IOC) is working with the World Meteorological Organisation to co-ordinate such warning systems within "seismically vulnerable" areas of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean. The focus is on linking up national systems by the end of this year.
In Ireland, Met Éireann will be identified as the main "warning provider", according to GSI spokesman Brian McConnell.
Ireland is regarded as "low risk", but NUI Galway geologist Prof Mike Williams has predicted that a tsunami could reach Ireland within 2½ hours of a volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands. Research he has carried out indicates that Ireland was previously hit by tsunamis on at least three occasions in the past 250 years, and that freak waves may have contributed to the formation of the Aran Islands.
Tsunamis are initially caused by tremors or earthquakes on the sea floor. A landslide created by the La Palma eruption would create a dome of water over 900m (3,000ft) high. The western Sahara coastline would bear the brunt of this, along with Florida and the Caribbean, while waves of 50m (165ft) would hit north Atlantic destinations, including Ireland.
During research on links between seismic occurrences and historical reports of freak waves here, Prof Williams found references to such events dating back to early medieval times in Ireland. The annals record an event in Co Cork in AD 830 where "the sea broke through its banks in a violent manner and overflowed a considerable tract of land".
In August 1852, 15 people were close to the limestone ledges of Inis Mór when a wave swept them to their deaths.