Have you ever looked out from the beach and pondered the idea of a tsunami? Don't worry, there is an emergency plan for it.

However, it’s more about sorting out the mess afterwards than getting people away from danger as a seismic movement in the Mar Alboran would give us 20 minutes before the first surge arrives, which might not necessarily be the biggest, which could reach five metres in height.

The Red Sísmica Nacional will pick it up and activate the emergency plan and depending on the intensity, different measures will be taken. As far as Costa Tropical goes, we’re looking at a 5-metre wave or surge which takes less time to arrive than you normally take looking for somewhere to park at the height of summer – just saying!

Protección Civil and the emergency services would be immediately informed, who would follow the protocol for evacuating people. Quick question here for you: do you think that they could clear a beach of beach users in 20 minutes? Can you imagine the chaos of everybody trying to load their beach stuff (because they will, instead of just getting the hell out of it). Can you imagine 200 cars trying to leave the parking along the paseos and clogging the junctions?

Nope! It would take 10 minutes for people just to start taking this situation seriously. This is why we say that the emergency services will be sorting out the aftermath rather than actually being able to get people out of the way of the tsunami.

The Central Government published the Plan Estatal de Protección Civil in case of seaquake risk last month, by the way so you can all sleep more soundly.

OK, having established that the most realistic course of action is bending over, putting your head between your knees and kissing your… what are the chances of such an event? Well, the last one was in 1755, which wiped out Lisbon with an eight-metre wave… which was not the highest, because along the Andalusian coast between Cádiz and Huelva the wave was closer to 20 metres, killing 2,200 people.

The good news is that every time there is an earth tremor, this is tension that is being dissipated instead of building up. Furthermore, had we been the other end of the Med, that’s were the hiccups occur, whereas down our end, it’s not so bumpy.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)