Mega tsunami threat in Atlantic

However I think that more people should be aware of the theory put forward by two scientists in 2001, Steven Ward and Simon Day, which says that not only the Caribbean is in danger of a mega tsunami, but an area encompassing the coasts of northern Brazil, the Guianas, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, coastal North America, Iceland, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and West Coast Africa. The scale of this tsunami being unprecedented in recorded history.

The source of this possible mega tsunami is a volcano called cumbre vieja on the tiny island of La Palma, the westernmost of seven islands in the Canary Islands off the African Coast. An eruption of this volcano in 1949 caused the entire south western flank (one sixth of the island, about 500 cubic kilometres) to drop 15 feet, making the entire flank unstable right down to the sea floor. La Palma is one of the tallest volcanic islands in the world, about 7,900 feet above sea level, in very deep water. The last collapse on the northern coast of this island occurred 65,000 years ago, which did in fact unleash a very destructive series of waves.

Another eruption of this volcano, could cause the entire flank of the mountain to slide down to the sea floor, in one piece.

If this happens, the initial wave could be as high as 3,000 feet, a series of waves would spread out across the Atlantic.

After one hour, the waves would still be about 130 to 300 feet high, after six hours North America would be hit by waves 130 to 160 feet high, travelling up to 12 miles inland.

The Caribbean would have been hit around two hours earlier, all flat lands could be inundated to a great extent, and all islands would be subjected to the “wrap around effect,” a phenomenon in which waves hit from opposite directions around the island, joining up and creating a wave to hit from the opposite side from the actual tsunami.

The above scenario is the worst case and is dependent on the landslide occurring in one large chunk, if it breaks up, smaller and less significant waves would occur. Another worst case scenario, is if the sea floor is disturbed sufficiently to release its stored methane on the seafloor, then methane clouds could follow the tsunami, raising the possibility of fire storms or lethal gas, in the aftermath.

The possibility of disasters occurring on this scale, brings to mind the fragility of man’s existence on this planet, only one act of God away from destruction in one form or another.

In the very short time of man’s success as a species, the world could be in danger from man’s own actions eg global pollution or nuclear holocaust.

There is no guarantee of man’s continued success as a species, as the dinosaurs ruled this planet for 165 million years and are now extinct.

Joel Quintal

San Fernando