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Description
How a tsunami could work
Huge landslides and the mega-tsunami that they cause are extremely rare; The last one occurred about 4,000 years ago on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. 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.
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The Mega Tsunami would engulf the whole US east coast, sweeping away everything in its path up to 12 miles (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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At some time in the next few thousand years a
huge section of
La Palma, weighing 500 thousand million tonnes,
will fall into the Atlantic Ocean to generate a mega-tsunami.
The Mega Tsunami will surge across the Atlantic traveling at a speed of a jet aircraft. |
| 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. |
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In 1949 the southern volcano on the island of
La Palma 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.
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