Ancient tsunami may have struck Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands may at some point in the future face a major tsunami.

Scientists have found evidence of ancient slope failures on the seafloor to the south of the British Overseas Territory.

Computer models suggest these underwater landslides would have been capable of sending waves crashing on to the Falklands' coastline that were tens of metres high, according to BBC News.

Fortunately, such events only appear to happen once every million years or so, according to .

That means islanders shouldn't stay awake at night worrying about them, says Dr Uisdean Nicholson who's been investigating the issue.

"But you do want to capture risks at a range of different timescales. So I definitely think we should do more research to understand the different ways these events might be triggered," the Heriot-Watt University geologist told BBC.

errain on the edge of a raised region of the seafloor known as Burdwood Bank.

Seismic data reveals examples of repeat sediment failure where mud, sand and silt has tumbled down-slope into deeper waters.

The volume of material involved for the larger events appears to be around 100 cubic km.