Tsunami may have hit NYC area 300 B.C.

NEW YORK, May 4 (UPI) -- Scientists are postulating a huge wave -- a tsunami -- slammed into the region that is now New York City about 2,300 years ago.

The researchers say they've found evidence of a powerful ocean wave dumping sediment and shells across Long Island and New Jersey, and depositing wood debris far up the Hudson River, the BBC reported Monday. Further testing will be done to rule out other possible causes for the upheaval, such as an unusually large storm, the British network said.

Steven Goodbred of Vanderbilt University said sediment core drillings turned up large gravel, marine fossils and other materials dating to about 300 B.C. The evidence seems to rule out a storm, pointing instead to massive wave action, he said.

"If we're wrong, it was one heck of a storm," Goodbred said.

What would have caused the rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami is up for conjecture. The most plausible idea so far is an undersea landslide, the BBC reported, but one research group suggests an asteroid may have been to blame.