February 24, 2005
Tide gauge records in NW France
Data provided by the French Hydrographic Service
(Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine, SHOM)

Updated data set from tide gauge records on the French coasts, for the 25-31 December 2004 period.

Pables.txt Port_bloc.txt Pallice.txt Malo.txt Havre.txt Concarneau.txt Cherbourg.txt Brest.txt Arcachon.txt

Cherbourg Concarneau Brest/Pallice Havre/Malo Port-Bloc/Arcachon Sables
Cherbourg Concarneau Brest / Pallice Havre / Malo Port-Bloc / Arcachon Sables

Two examples of tide gauge records in NW France. The sampling interval is unfortunately 10-min only, presumably showing the arrival of the tsunami. The horizontal scale is in minutes (GMT + 1) since 25 December.

In Concarneau (Brittany, Atlantic Ocean) a series of waves (20 cm peak to trough) arrives a few hours before 28/12. In Le Havre (Manche, or British Channel), the waves (10 cm peak to trough) are observed a few hours after beginning of 28/12. This is consistent with a slow WE propagation in the Channel, a rather shallow area (hardly deeper than 50 to 100 m). The waves have also been observed in Brest, La Rochelle, Cherbourg, but the highest are observed in Concarneau.

Helene HEBERT
Laboratoire de Detection et de Geophysique Risques Sismiques et Geologiques
CEA/DASE/LDG/RSG - BP 12 - 91680 Bruyeres-le-Chatel - FRANCE
(mailto: Helene.Hebert@cea.fr )