• Thursday, the warning sirens will sound in the Bouches-du-Rhône for a "tsunami risk" exercise

  • The scenario tested is based on a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that would occur in northern Algeria.

    The waves, which can reach 1 m, would reach the Marseille coast in about an hour.

  • The coast has thirteen towns of importance, in terms of tourism or industry.

Marseille is exercising in the face of a possible tsunami in the Mediterranean.

Faced with this rare, but very real risk, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône is organizing an “Orsec tsunami” exercise this Thursday intended to make the population and industry aware of this eventuality, while testing the warning systems.

The risk of a tsunami, better known overseas, “is not a usual risk in the department - where we are more accustomed to talking about the risks of flooding, the risks of forest fires -, on the other hand it is a risk which is very real ”, indicated Wednesday Florence Leverino, the chief of staff of the prefect of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region.

“As of 2018, we are the first department in mainland France to have worked on a specific tsunami plan,” she said.

This center, located in the Paris region, has been monitoring strong earthquakes in the western Mediterranean and the North-East Atlantic since 2012.

Thirteen municipalities with strong tourist or industrial potential

"Our Mediterranean basin is unique in that it is much smaller and therefore the waves of the tsunami cross it much more quickly", adds Pascal Roudil, head of the National Tsunami Warning Center.

Thus, from the onset of an earthquake in northern Algeria, as it happened in May 2003 or March 2021 for example, the first waves reach the French coast in about an hour, according to him.

More than the height of the waves, it is the strong current which is, "in any case in our regions, one of the major causes of damage and risk".

In the Bouches-du-Rhône, the coast "has thirteen towns of importance because of high tourist potential for some of them and industrial for others", including many sites classified Seveso because of their potential dangerousness, recalls thus Christos Sabanis, in charge of defense and civil security at the prefecture.

Test the functioning of the alert chain

Thursday, it is an imaginary earthquake of magnitude 7.1, occurring in the north of Algeria, which will be supposed to cause waves of up to more than 1 m in certain areas of the Mediterranean coast.

A fictitious tsunami, but very real warning sirens, which will sound to call on the population to take shelter.

"The idea is to educate all stakeholders, the population, but also all operators and manufacturers, but it is also to test the functioning of the alert chain, from triggering until it is lifted. », Details Florence Leverino.

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