Ancient apocalyptic tidal waves
Lake Tanganyika is a long and narrow basin that stretches for about 680 km in a north-south direction in Central Africa. Of tectonic origin, it has a maximum width of 72 km and a maximum depth of 1,436 m, making it the second deepest lake in the world after Asia's Baikal. However, its uniqueness lies in its fauna: despite being a freshwater lake, Tanganyika features species typically found in marine environments. How is it possible to find sea fish in a freshwater lake? The initial theory suggested a past connection between Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean, but geological investigations have ruled out any direct link between the lake and the sea.
The mystery remained until a study by Tony Wilson from the University of Zurich, which hypothesizes that the presence of oceanic fauna is the result of an unimaginable tsunami that occurred in East Africa between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Wilson and his Swiss colleagues sequenced the DNA of a herring from Tanganyika, and the genetic history of that fish indicates its appearance in the lake between 50 and 25 million years ago, coinciding with a massive flood that inundated much of East Africa. The cause of this flood could only have been a global tsunami capable of shaking the entire planet. But what caused this cataclysm?
Excluding a meteor impact, which is statistically improbable given its proximity to the presumed extinction of the dinosaurs, it could have been an earthquake of unimaginable power that struck Africa with a tsunami reaching thousands of kilometers inland.
If so, what is the true seismic potential of our planet?
