Giant wave could threaten US

BBC ^ | 10 August 2004

[FormerACLUmember]

I tried to post an October 10 article from the Independent in the UK with the latest findings, but some totalitarian editor there apparently formally complained to Free Republic, and therefore no postings are permitted from the Independent. So much for the free exchange of ideas. Instead I am posting an earlier report (from the BBC website) on research into the vast unstable flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma. The new research is at:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=549820

Please do not post from the Independent. I do not know how valid all this research is, I see every reason to set up an early warning system as recommended by Professor Bill McGuire in the new report.

[FormerACLUmember]

October 10 = August 10

[Recovering_Democrat]

This is obviously George Bush's fault.

[Cold Heat]

Hey! I get to say it first!

We are dooomed!

[fhayek]

John Kerry has a secret plan that will save us.

[glasseye]

We're all gonna die.....well someday anyway......*grin

[per loin]

By rough estimate, NY is about twice as far from the Canaries as London. Would London be destroyed in time to give NY lots of warning?

[boomop1]

Behold He comes riding on a wave shinning like the sun, at the trumpet call.

[FormerACLUmember]

Yes it is all the fault of those evil republicans!!

[Palladin]

When's the movie?

[denydenydeny]

I imagine that terrorists are already doing theoretical work on seeing if the flank slide could be artificially triggered by a large explosion. That's the first thing that came to mind.

[GeronL]

Wouldn't the wave go in all directions??

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Sounds like what happens whenever Michael Moore sits down.

[corkoman]

Wouldn't the wave go in all directions??

Yes and the Bahamas would take the brunt and spare south florida.

[Born in a Rage]

Ich, the thought of being swallowed up by a tidal wave is horrifying. I've had nightmares about that very thing.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

"Wouldn't the wave go in all directions?"

They should call it the Kerry Wave.

[muawiyah]

650 metres!

Most likely the resultant wave would be so massive, it would literally be unable to propagate itself in adjacent waters. As a consequence a soliton would be created. It would head off across the ocean, with undiminished height and mass, to totally devastate the shoreline opposite.

Most likely the collapse of the Antarctic as the last glaciation of the current Ice Age came to an end, produced many such solitons, or maybe even one very large soliton in a catastrophic collapse.

This is why there are no major works of man older than that time anywhere that we know of.

[FormerACLUmember]

By rough estimate, NY is about twice as far from the Canaries as London. Would London be destroyed in time to give NY lots of warning?

Yes and no. A smaller version of the tsunami would reach the UK first. The wave front, as I read it, gets greatly dissipated by the European Coast, the English Channel, the Thames Estuary, etc., so would not be as severe. Also I think the disintigrated flank of the volcano faces the East Coast of the US, so we would bear the full brunt of the mega-tsunami.

[vger]

Hey I heard about this last year on TLC's show about tsunamis. So I get to say it first "We're all doomed!!!"

[nmh]

"Dr Simon Day, of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College London, UK, BELIEVES one flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, in the Canaries archipelago, is UNSTABLE and COULD plunge into the ocean."

The weasel words, believes and could are not something I get all in an uproar over.

[Frank_2001]

Start waxin' those surfboards, dudes!;)

[FormerACLUmember]

650 metres (or meters) equals about 1900 feet high, which is a wave a third of mile high hitting the East Coast. The Empire State Building is only 1/4 of a mile high. It would travel 20 kilometers inland, or 12 miles from the ocean.

[Texas Eagle]

At the time I am writing this post there are 20 replies and so far no one has said:

Women and minorities to be hardest hit.

[CindyDawg]

How long would it take to reach the east coast?

[Cold Heat]

LOL!

[vger]

"...say half a trillion tonnes of rock falling into the water all at once... "; is that like a one with nine zeroes after it or is it a million times a billion? In the US a billion is a one with nine zeroes after it(a thousand million). In the UK a billion is a million million. In the US a trillion would be a onnnne with 12 zeroes behind it or a million million or one UK billion. Does that mean that a UK trillion would be a million times a million times a million or a one with eighteen zeroes behind it or would it be that a UK billion is the same as a UK trillion when expressed in US terminology?

[COEXERJ145]

Giant wave could threaten US

We need to make sure Michael Moron doesn't belly flop into the ocean.

[GATOR NAVY]

La Palma volcano

[asgardshill]

Swiss researchers who have modelled the landslide say half a trillion tonnes of rock falling into the water all at once would create a wave 650 metres high (2,130 feet) that would spread out and travel across the Atlantic at high speed.

It'd be a damn shame if that half a trillion tons had the help of the first Islamic nuclear weapon to get it started.

[vger]

onnnne = one

[Howlin]

I question the timing of this.

[ScottinSacto]

I imagine that terrorists are already doing theoretical work on seeing if the flank slide could be artificially triggered by a large explosion. That's the first thing that came to mind.

That was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Second thing was to get crackin on the screenplay!!!!

[AGreatPer]

Does anyone really live on Hierro?

[smonk]

--John Kerry has a secret plan that will save us.--

he will "reach out" to the tsunami, and will end this arrogant "go it alone" bush tsunami policy.

[fso301]

Why couldn't a nuclear bomb be used to neutralize/disrupt the wave?

[Ros42]

I saw this on the show "Blue Planet" on the Discovery Channel, it was pretty interesting.

[sc2_ct]

650 metres (or meters) equals about 1900 feet high, which is a wave a third of mile high hitting the East Coast. The Empire State Building is only 1/4 of a mile high. It would travel 20 kilometers inland, or 12 miles from the ocean.

---------------

I hope I'm at home when it happens. If I'm at work I'll be dead, but if I'm at home I should have easy beach access :)

[boomop1]

LOL, I do to leaving in Wilmington, could ruin my whole day.

[Howlin]

My niece just moved into a new house down there!

[GOP_Raider]

Whoa, dude! You don't wanna wipe out on those waves, brahhh! Still, that would be, like, totally awesome man!!

[boomop1]

Leaving should be living but maybe leaving in the outcome head to daughters in Roxboro.

[Ken H]

Don't quantum waves collapse when observed?

If you got enough observers, the same should happen here.

[vger]

No nukes! Save the world for conventional weapons!

[GSlob]

You forgot the elderly.

[FormerACLUmember]

How long would it take to reach the east coast?

"After travelling across 4,000 miles of the Atlantic for about nine hours the tsunami would hit the Caribbean islands and the east coasts of Canada and the US with devastating effect. It would stretch for many miles and sweep into the estuaries and harbours for up to 20 miles inland, destroying everything in its path."

[trthnjsts]

Obviously this is Bush's October suprise... Drown the Blue States

[asgardshill]

Why couldn't a nuclear bomb be used to neutralize/disrupt the wave?

Why not use conventional weapons (a few 'Big Bertha' JDAMS might be the ticket) in the same fashion that several small avalanches are triggered in snow country to prevent one massive avalanche.

[Styria]

Because a nuclear explosion is smaller than the wavelength of these waves. They would pass through it or around, and if you create a difraction pattern on the other side, there's the potential of creating a larger amplitude. The only way a nuclear weapon would stop it is if you blew off part of this wall that might fall. If the concern is about water inside the rocks creating pressure on it, why not just drill holes into it to let the water out?

What I fantasize about is putting a nuclear weapon inside a hurricane. Would it disrupt it, or would the added heat/energy power the cyclone (these things are heat engines, and the rising air in the eye is what causes the low pressure.

[Texas Eagle]

Oh, yeah. Thanks for the assist. I also forgot the chilllllllldrun.

[CindyDawg]

Not much time. We need to keep a close eye on it.