Yeah, I didn’t find the whole hypothesis of this guy intellectually rigorous. There’s a link earlier in the topic, a Google search on topics about the Etna landslide, which dates to about 8000 years ago; something like that would more than do the trick at Sardinia, and Italy was (and still is) lousy with actrive volcanoes, both on land and offshore. As you said, the initial wave wouldn’t have to be 1600 feet high to reach 1600 feet elevation, case in point, the Lituya Bay splash in the 1950s, which was caused by a landslide, and the bay is fjord-like; the debris line is over 1700 feet elevation, or a third of a mile.
A couple of months ago I got to wondering -- what would be the chances of oil and gas deposits near Malta. So went and looked up what I could find in the way of depth charts.
It's facing the other way from Sardinia, but to the East of Malta there is a huge drop-off to a large basin, and iirc, I came across mention of there being what some interpret as evidence for large and sudden sloughing had occured in past ages, in that area.
None of that explains drowning sardines though, they seemed to be more like up on a shelf. ;^')
I didn't browse through charts of the Sardinia area since for whatever reasons I was wondering about Malta, and how far they may claim EEZ if they do.
But who knows, there could be something along lines of undersea earthquake that occurred in past times more to the West, under those shallower waters near where sardines come from (hey, they had to have crawled off land somewhere, getting their first start, right? hehheh) that people have missed.
Collapsing volcanoes would do the trick too, as you mentioned, but I don't think boiled sardines float, so there goes that free meal consolation prize. If its not one thing it another, Troubles everywhere, it seems...
As for the recently announced large natural gas find somewhere offshore of Egypt, in very deep water--- that did answer a question that came to mind --- could there be gas that deep --- somewhere under that basin East of Malta?
I guess the location of the Egyptian find is more like North of the fan of the Nile, so could be somehow related. Apologies for myself having drifted off the subject. If one thing doesn't lead to something else, it leads to thousands of others.
Sardinia should not be the only place the tsunami hit, although it may not have been as high elsewhere. Shoaling characteristics and coastal morphology could have some definite effects on how fast a wave built height and the damage done by that wave inland.