La Palma and its megatsunami

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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As some of you might know, there is a volcano on the Canarian island La Palma pretty much set to erupt. Scientists predict, though it has been contended, that this eruption will split the island in half, 'causin'...well...here, Wikipedia info:

During the 1949 eruption the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge slipped several metres downwards into the Atlantic Ocean. It is believed that this process was driven by the pressure caused by the rising magma heating and vaporizing water trapped within the structure of the island. During a future eruption, the western half of the island, weighing perhaps 500 billion tonnes, could slide into the ocean. This could generate a giant wave known as a megatsunami around 1 km high in the region of the islands. The wave would fan out across the Atlantic and strike the Caribbean and the eastern American seaboard several hours later with a wave possibly 90 m high causing massive devastation along the coastlines. However, some scientists think the flank of the island would crumble away, instead of falling into the ocean in a large mass, sparing the coasts.

Megatsunami are only generated by certain specialized conditions, such as those existing on southwestern La Palma, and so are fortunately quite rare. It may be possible to avert the landslide simply by setting up a large strip mine and relocating the perched material to sea level. Such an operation would be massively expensive (although less expensive than a tsunami) and would have to be carried out over an extended time.
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And BBC Science and Nature:

The growing concern is that the ideal conditions for just such a landslide - and consequent mega-tsunami - now exist on the island of La Palma in the Canaries. In 1949 the southern volcano on the island erupted. During the eruption an enormous crack appeared across one side of the volcano, as the western half slipped a few metres towards the Atlantic before stopping in its tracks. Although the volcano presents no danger while it is quiescent, scientists believe the western flank will give way completely during some future eruption on the summit of the volcano. In other words, any time in the next few thousand years a huge section of southern La Palma, weighing 500 thousand million tonnes, will fall into the Atlantic ocean.

What will happen when the volcano on La Palma collapses? Scientists predict that it will generate a wave that will be almost inconceivably destructive, far bigger than anything ever witnessed in modern times. It will surge across the entire Atlantic in a matter of hours, engulfing the whole US east coast, sweeping away everything in its path up to 20km inland. Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then all the way down the coast to Miami and the Caribbean.
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You can read one of the fuller articles here

landslide would create an exceptionally large tsunami with the capability to travel great distances and reaching speeds of up to 800 kilometres per hour. Immediately after Cumbre Vieja's collapse a dome of water 900 metres high and tens of kilometres wide will form only to collapse and rebound. As the landslide continues to move underwater a series of wave crests and troughs are produced which soon develop into a tsumani 'wave train' which fuels the waves progress. After only 10 minutes, the model predicts, the tsunami will have moved a distance of almost 250 kilometres.

The greatest effects are predicted to occur north, west and south of the Canaries. On the West Saharan shore waves are expected to reach heights of 100 metres from crest to trough and on the north coast of Brazil waves over 40 metres high are anticipated. Florida and the Caribbean, the final destinations in the North Atlantic to be affected by the tsunami, will have to brace themselves for receiving 50 metre high waves - higher than Nelson's column in London, some 8 to 9 hours after the landslide. Towards Europe waves heights will be smaller, but substantial tsunami waves will hit the Atlantic coasts of Britain, Spain Portugal and France.

For tsunamis striking flat-lying coastline regions such as Florida, calculating the inundation distance - the extent to which water penetrates inland taking the form of fast moving floods after waves break - is crucial to assessing potential damage. Dr. Day and his colleagues estimate inundation distances in the region of several kilometres from the coast. Accurate estimates of the scale of economic loss are yet to be made but are thought to be in the multi trillion USD range.
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Now I knew about this before the recent tsunami, but somehow it seems more relevant now. I wonder, since I was gone back then, was this brought up to the public's attention after the recent disaster? If not, what do you think of it?

As far as I know only one political party in Holland seems to be aware of the problem and is requesting that we go for the expensive solution before we all die or, bar that as it is unrealistic, at least set up some proper equipment there to monitor earthquake shocks so we can at least see it coming. Thoughts?
 
Why don't Americans just shower the island with their nukes? They've been itching to use them for a while now and this is a great opportunity.
 
Kharn, you are just full of good news.

Damn, this would be quite a disaster. But no one knows when this will happen, and it could happen over the next few thousand years?

From what I recall of Tsunamis- they mostly hit along the Pacific Coast 'Circle of Fire' and usually have more to do with seismic activity and sesmic waves than deposits of large amoutns of rock into the ocean. Isn't the tsunami more a result of a energy wave do a seismic shift than the consequence of displacement?

A wave in the area 1 kilometer high! Damn. That can't be good for tourism.

I have head that something similar is due from Hawaii as well, though not as large.

You are definitely putting a damper on my next beach holiday. Maybe someone should think about that strip mining idea?

satellite photos-
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/africa/lapalma.html
 
welsh said:
Damn, this would be quite a disaster. But no one knows when this will happen, and it could happen over the next few thousand years?
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Yes. That doesn't make it much less of a problem, though, since it could happen within 10 years too.

welsh said:
From what I recall of Tsunamis- they mostly hit along the Pacific Coast 'Circle of Fire' and usually have more to do with seismic activity and sesmic waves than deposits of large amoutns of rock into the ocean. Isn't the tsunami more a result of a energy wave do a seismic shift than the consequence of displacement?
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Tsunamis are always caused by undersea earthquakes, yes, as far as I know.

That might be why they refer to this as a megatsunami. The chunk of the island that would crash into the sea would weigh 500 billion tonnes. Imagine throwing a rock into a bathtub, same effect. That much matter displacement causes enough energy to make quite a wave: "The energy released by the collapse would be equal to the electricity consumption of the entire United States in half a year."
 
Now that's interesting, and no this has never been brought up with the recent Tsunami, not by anything or anyone, for as far as I know at least, and I kept informed.
This would be catastrophal.

Bah. Would this one party in the Netherlands supporting active prevention be GroenLinks?
 
Sander, they spammed national geographic (be/nl) with the documentary about it after the tsunami... but as far as other media are concerned? i've only seen the newspaper 'De Morgen' write something about it.

how do i know? :look:

my bro likes to watch NatGeo! not me! my bro! :liar:

anyhow, came across it by chance a couple of times...
 
Corpse said:
The results of such an event would be disastrous, but are nothing compared to a supervolcano erupting; The later could easily wipe out entire species.
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Well, so could a tsunami if it was large enough to inundate a species entire range, but anyways.

Earthquakes and landslides are very difficult to predict, which makes me think that the seismologists and USGS types are just covering their asses, bureaucrat-style. Besides, how does anyone know that doing something about the possible landslide won't precipitate the event unnecessarily?

And I know the Pacific has a tsunami warning system, does the Atlantic? I think not. This is probably the best thing anyone could do to prepare for the landslide, that and an evacuation plan of coastal Europe and the Americas. :roll: Anything more and the accusation of fearmongering would keep anyone from doing anything about it.

And on that uplifting note...
 
Sander said:
Bah. Would this one party in the Netherlands supporting active prevention be GroenLinks?
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Nope, SP. Don't be silly, you should know the SP is most environment-concious once of the parties, just because GroenLinks has "Green" in their name doesn't mean that's their area of focus (a bit silly, yes, but it's an old party by now and it's changed directions quite a few times)

For obvious reasons, this particular Megatsunami would be a problem for us. We're not mentioned in the studies, but I find it safe to assume that if it hits Great Britain and France it'll flood right over our pathetic little dykes.
 
Kharn said:
Nope, SP. Don't be silly, you should know the SP is most environment-concious once of the parties, just because GroenLinks has "Green" in their name doesn't mean that's their area of focus (a bit silly, yes, but it's an old party by now and it's changed directions quite a few times)
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*shrugs* I should've known. Ah well.

Oh, and your second remark falls into the 'Whoa, no shit sherlock?' department.

ZelfmoOrd: I never watch NatGeo, so i didn't know that. Ah well.
 
Will you stop trying to troll me into a discussion over genetically modified food, please?
 
Ah, go prison rape eachother already.



PS The writer reserves the right to wave all responsibility for this message due to alcohol consumption and sleep deprivation.
 
Jebus said:
PS The writer reserves the right to wave all responsibility for this message due to alcohol consumption and sleep deprivation, in addition to being angry at being born into the least race of all humanity, the Nortern Belgishian.
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There, I fixed your post.
 
So you're saying America might get wiped out all of a sudden within the next thousand years?

Could someone please wipe that smile off my face?
 
WHile you are thinking happy happy joy joy thoughts, you might want to consider that you are also talking about most of the North and South Atlantic seaboards being washed away too.

Sometimes you Europeans and your rampant anti-americanism is just so foolish.
 
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