Information about the sponsors was released by the Portuguese Met Office (IPMA), which coordinates Portugal’s scientific input into the project, although there is no suggestion its timing is in any way related to the doom-laden reports.
The EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water-column Observatory) project is based in Rome, Italy, and involves eight countries, including Portugal.
Portugal’s role during a first phase is to run the deep-sea observatory in the Cadiz Gulf, off the coast of Sagres, a high-interest area in terms of seismic activity and the confluence of maritime currents from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Pedro Brito, one of the IPMA researchers involved in the project, explained to Lusa News Agency that sensors will be installed at between two and three thousand metres deep, which will allow a continuous and prolonged observation of the water column - from the surface to the sea floor - and with which it will be possible to collect data on temperature, pressure and properties of water, real-time speeds, and on soil and sealife.
With these instruments, scientists will be able to monitor seismic activity, climate and greenhouse gases, phytoplankton production (microscopic algae), marine mammals and fish stocks, as well as study the origins and limits of life and the dynamics of marine ecosystems.
An underwater observatory to test the technology to be used south of Sagres will be installed in shallower waters, at up to 200 metres, in the northern part of mainland Portugal.
Networks of seabed observatories like the European EMSO already exist in the United States, Canada, China, Japan and Australia.
This news comes days after rather alarming and somewhat sensationalist reports in the British media that a “Mega Tsunami that could kill 10,000 [is] ‘on its way to hols Brits in Spain and Portugal’”, as the Daily Star’s headline on Monday put it.
Other publications including the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Express and the Mirror all ran similar reports based on a documentary titled ‘La Gran Ola’ in which Spanish oceanography specialist Begona Perez claims it is not a case of “whether” a giant wave will hit the tourist hotspots in Spain and Portugal, but “when”.
Thedocumentary predicts “major loss of life, entire cities evacuated and economic catastrophe as a result of a powerful wave in the Gulf of Cadiz”, the Mirror reported.
It claimed experts warn the deadly tsunami could hit tourist hotspots in Spain and Portugal causing widespread devastation, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and causing “very high economic losses”.
“There have been calls for an early warning system to be installed in the Gulf of Cadiz but to date nothing is in place”, it added.
The Lisbon 1755 earthquake, which practically wiped out the capital, triggered a tsunami that killed more than 10,000 people and, the documentary suggests, that devastation could be repeated.
In November last year, Portuguese expert Cristina Oliveira warned that should an earthquake of the same magnitude as the ones that rattled Italy strike Lisbon, it would probably flatten the Portuguese capital due to a lack of preparatory measures for the city and its people.