Not If, But When: How Spain's Coastal Towns Are Preparing for Tsunamis

A Fault Line Off the Costa del Sol

Only 25 miles south-west of Málaga's port — where half a million tourists disembark from cruise ships each year — lies a system of tectonic plates and faults that fracture the seabed between Spain and North Africa.

Earthquakes are routine here. Most are too small to notice, but some are strong enough to rattle glasses in cafés on the seafront. In December, a magnitude 4.9 tremor off the coast of Fuengirola triggered more than 40 calls to Andalucía's 112 emergency line. No damage was done, but it was a reminder that southern Spain sits in a zone of "continuous seismicity."

The Alborán Sea fault system marks the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. Displacement is slow, but energy accumulates over centuries — and eventually, it is released.

Chipiona: Spain's First 'Tsunami Ready' Town

While the risk of tsunamis is rarely discussed among residents and tourists on the Costa del Sol, a three-hour drive west in the Atlantic-facing town of Chipiona, near Cádiz, the possibility is not whispered — it's signposted.

On Regla beach, information boards explain what a tsunami is and what to do if one is coming. Evacuation routes are marked. Sirens are installed. And each November — at the hour the devastating 1755 Lisbon earthquake struck — schoolchildren calmly walk designated routes inland in a town-wide drill.

In 2024, Chipiona became Spain's first "tsunami ready" community, recognised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO — one of only a handful in the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean region, alongside Cannes, Alexandria and Minturno.

'Don't Wait for the Alert — Move Inland'

Mayor Luis Mario Aparcero Fernández acknowledged that other mayors in the province were initially reluctant to talk about tsunamis. "We are tourist municipalities," he explained. "But I was able to convince them that we could achieve more tourism through greater safety."

The town's coordinator, Francisco Castro, is careful with his words: "Certification does not mean there is no risk. What we are doing here is no different to hotels preparing guests with fire drills and maps of escape routes."

Chipiona assumes its citizens will have roughly one hour between an earthquake and the arrival of a tsunami. Meeting points are placed within a 20-minute walk. The instruction is simple: do not drive. The town cannot evacuate its entire population by car without gridlocking the streets.

Tsunami modeller Jorge Macías from Málaga puts it bluntly: "If you feel something really strong near the coast, don't wait for the alert. Move inland or up."

The 1755 Earthquake: A Warning From History

At Chipiona's Cruz del Mar monument, a plaque commemorates 1 November 1755, when an earthquake with a magnitude of between 7.7 and 9 — located 150 miles off the coast of Portugal — generated waves with an estimated height of 10 metres along the coasts of Cádiz and Huelva. Across Iberia and North Africa, tens of thousands of people were killed.

Recent seismic swarms in the Gulf of Cádiz — including five quakes in one day in March last year — prompted headlines asking whether a bigger event was imminent. Small quakes don't necessarily herald a larger one, but geologists remain cautious. The return period for a major Atlantic or Mediterranean rupture is estimated at between 450 and 1,500 years. That doesn't mean tomorrow — but it doesn't mean never.

Spain's Largest Tsunami Drill

Last year, Cádiz staged what authorities called Spain's largest tsunami drill, with more than 20,000 participants, 1,000 operatives, sirens, ES-Alert mobile broadcasts and vertical evacuations in hotels. It simulated a Lisbon-scale earthquake and tested evacuation procedures across the region.

The goal set by UNESCO is to establish 25 tsunami-ready communities across the region by the end of this year, and to prepare all at-risk communities by 2030.

This article is based on reporting from The Guardian, published April 2, 2026. This article is for informational purposes only.