Coastal areas along the Pacific have long prepared for a possible tsunami, but few communities along the Atlantic coast have any preparations for tsunamis. That’s because tsunamis are rare in the Atlantic Ocean. They are rare, but they have occured. As a matter of fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has updated the Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Atlantic and Caribbean in 2006 and early 2008. The Canadian government announced in 2007 that it is creating A TWS off its Atlantic coast. But most people living on the Atlantic coast are more worried about hurricanes. A tsunami probably never crosses their minds.
But there is a very real danger of a huge tsunami slamming into North America’s east coast killing millions of unsuspecting people. Steven Ward, a research geophysicist at the University of California in Santa Cruz and Simon Day of the Benfield Research Hazard Centre in London have predicted such an event.
The Cumbre Vieja valcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands is the culprit. The Canary Islands, situated in the North Atlantic west off the northwestern coast of Africa, are of volcanic origan. La Palma is the western-most island in the chain and is the steepest island in the world. It’s volcano, which is active but still dormant, is almost 8000 feet high. It rises over four miles from the ocean floor. This volcano is gradually disintegrating and will eventually send a massive rock slide into the ocean. It’s up for debate, however, if the volcano will have to erupt first.
A computer model of the self-destruction of the volcano’s western flank estimates the displaced rock will measure 3 miles high, 3 miles wide and over a mile deep. That’s over 1.3 trillion cubic feet of volcanic rock. This huge amount of rock will move into the Atlantic at over 300 feet per second.
The end result will be a tsunami creating waves hundreds of feet high in coastal areas. The waves will be the highest in recorded-tsunami history. It will race across the Atlantic at speeds up to 500 mph, before crashing into northeastern South America, the Caribbean, the east coast of North America, and southern Britain. Low lying areas in Brazil, Florida, the Carolinas will be under water miles inland. New York City will cease to exist. The tsunami will roar down the St Lawrence River into the Great Lakes washing away cities and towns.
Steven Ward said that the volcano did fall into the Atlantic about 500,000 years ago. Since then, the volcano has rebuilt itself. He cannot say when it will happen again, but there are indications that it’s getting near the end of it’s life cycle.
If that mega-tsunami crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the TWS will give the 8 million people of New York City a few minutes to seek higher ground. Millions will die and the damage will be in the trillions of dollars.
