At the EGU, Stefano Tinti from the University of Bologna, Italy, said the EU collectively had put only about 8m euros into tsunami research over the last five years.

BBC: Europe's future lies under Africa, scientists suggest

According to the European Environment Agency, 200 tsunamis were recorded over the last 500 years around the Mediterranean and the University of Bologna indicated recently that on average in the last four centuries Italy has been hit by 15 tsunamis every 100 years.

UNESCO: Indigenous Peoples