Free Republic

There sure is a lot of talk about how "global warming" is about to destroy the planet! And how, if we don't stop driving our SUVs – and go back to living by candlelight – we'll all be dead within the next 20 years. (Just ask your children; that's what they probably already believe.) But I'd like to propose that there are much worse catastrophes we really should be worried about. Here is my list of the Top 8:

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull wreaked havoc on European air travel, but it could have been worse. Much, much, much worse The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull caused billions of dollars in economic damage, and left millions of travelers stranded. But on the Volcanic Explosivity Index — volcanologists’ tool for rating the severity of an eruption — the event rated only a two out of a possible eight. More severe eruptions cause “death and destruction” on a planetary basis, points out Simon Winchester in The Guardian. “They can darken skies and cause devastating changes in the weather. They can and do bring about the...

Did anyone watch the Discovery channel on MegaTsunamis over the weekend? Basically, a huge chunk of the island of La Plama in the Canaries is in danger of collapsing into the sea, which would set off a tidal wave washing 12 miles inland on the east coast of the US. I've heard from a contact in the Army that there are serious worries that bin Laden could try to set off a nuke on La Palma that would trigger the collapse. Should Discovery have been allowed to show this? Should the US station troops on La Palma?

“The island has now been elevated by 9 cm due to the magma pressure. Last night there was one quake of 4.4 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 18km, which was also felt on the neighbouring island of La Palma.”

M5.4 - 31km NW of Frontera, Spain 2013-12-27 17:46:06 UTC

Fossil Frank has a hypothesis - inspired by certain shells taken from deep in a limestone quarry abutting the Everglades - that a great tsunami hit Florida about two million years ago. It happened in the evening - and he can prove it. More of this later. Before Frank Perillo became Fossil Frank he was an unhappy mechanic. He hated every day he lay on his back in Ketcham's garage. Winter days were worst, because his hands turned to meat from the cold and the lacquer thinners he used to wash himself. When he jacked up cars, the ice on...

Translated.. El Hierro recorded 28 earthquakes so far of day The recorded earthquakes ranging from 1.9 and 2.6 magnitude on the Richter scale 18.03.2013 | 18:51 EP volcano monitoring network monitoring 24 hours a National Geographic Institute (IGN) has recorded on the island of El Hierro on Monday a total of 28 earthquakes of between 1.9 and 2.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, although none felt by population. The largest of the quakes, which struck at 14.29 pm, had a magnitude of 2.6 degrees, and occurred west of the town of Frontera, on land, 20 kilometers deep. At 14.42 hours...

MADRID, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - Some 10,000 people have been evacuated from two major islands on Spain's Canaries swept by forest fires, a local government spokesman said Tuesday. "The island of Gran Canaria, where over 20,000 hectares of pineland has burnt down, is seeing the worst situation, and 13,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed on Tenerife," the source said. However, the spokesman said the fires were raging in inland areas of the islands, while coastal regions where numerous hotels and popular beaches are located were under no threat. The official said strong winds and scorching temperatures of up...

About 2,300 years ago, a giant tsunami crashed ashore where New York City stands today. No one knows for sure what caused it, but new clues found in the Hudson River's silt suggest an asteroid slammed into the Atlantic Ocean nearby. Katherine Cagan of Harvard University and a team of researchers found carbon spherules -- perfectly round particles that form in the extreme pressures of an impact -- and other grains of shocked minerals in the sediments as well, but the discovery remains controversial. Some say a wave big enough to leave sediments that far from the coast would have...

Explore one of the most dangerous and enigmatic forces on earth, tsunamis. See the science behind their devastating power. Understand where they come from and what we can do to better prepare. It's not if it will happen again, but when.

The risk of a landslide in the Canary Islands causing a tidal wave (tsunami) able to devastate America's east coast is vastly overstated. That's according to marine geologists studying ancient landslides in the area In typical Canary Island landslides, chunks of land break off in bits, not in one dramatic plunge, they claim. This contradicts previous warnings that an Isle of Man-sized chunk of land could fall off the island of La Palma into the sea, causing a mega-tsunami.

A wall of water up to 55 yards high crashing into the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, flattening everything in its path -- not a Hollywood movie but a dire prophecy by some British and U.S. academics. As the international community struggles to aid victims of last month's devastating tsunami in southern Asia, scientists warn an eruption of a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands could unleash a "mega-tsunami" larger than any in recorded history. According to their controversial study, an explosion of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma could send a chunk of rock twice...

Update 17/10 – 17:29 UTC : The volcano discussion panel @ jonfr.com is expecting that we are in the stage of a surtseyan eruption. The vent opened in a very shallow depth of 150 m. That means that the magma can form pillow lava so that the “building” soon reaches the surface and then continues with phreatomagmatic eruptions.

While the unusually strong earthquake swarm under El Hierro Island continues, harmonic volcanic tremor has reappeared short time ago at about 16h10 UTC. The tremor, a low-frequency ground vibration, is thought to be caused by moving magma. It had been strong yesterday and correlated well with a southward propagation of earthquake locations, suggesting that magma at about 20 km depth flew from underneath the El Golfo area towards the EL Julan (south) coast, in a similar way as before the Oct 2011 eruption, but became blocked there, and did not reach the southern rift zone near La Restinga. After the...

The Instituto Geografico Nacional (IGN) has reported an increase in the intensity of earthquakes recorded on El Hierro, the smallest of The Canary Islands, during the last 24 to 36 hours. The number of earthquakes recorded since July 17 , 2011 on El Hierros has now reached 10,000, figures from the IGN confirm. The IGN also confirmed surface deformations exceeding 35mm on the 280-sqkm island, where residents have been put on alert for a possible volcanic eruption. However, seismologists have moved to reassure the local population that a volcanic eruption is not imminent. The agency confirmed on Friday that 890...

A wall of water up to 55 yards high crashing into the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, flattening everything in its path -- not a Hollywood movie but a dire prophecy by some British and U.S. academics. As the international community struggles to aid victims of last month's devastating tsunami in southern Asia, scientists warn an eruption of a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands could unleash a "mega-tsunami" larger than any in recorded history. Hammocks almost buried at the beach of Pajara district in Fuerteventura island (Canary Island), southern Spain. Countries all around the Atlantic rim could be hit...

Residents of El Hierro have been put on standby for mandatory evacuation. The Canary Islands are on watch for what scientists believe is a pending volcanic eruption. MADRID, SPAIN - The 108 square mile island of El Hierro is home to about 10,000 people. And the population is on standby orders for emergency evacuation. The island has seen thousands of small earthquakes in what seismologists refer to as an, "earthquake swarm." They believe the earthquake swarm is a sign that an eruption is imminent. Nearly 9,000 tremors have been detected in the last two months. On Monday a 3.8 quake...

Can you imagine the devastation that would be caused if a massive wall of water several hundred feet high slammed into Florida at more than 100 miles an hour? To many people such a scenario is impossible, but that is what people living along the Indian Ocean thought before the 2004 tsunami and that is what people living in Japan thought before the 2011 tsunami. Throughout history, giant tsunamis have been relatively rare events, but they do happen. Scientists tell us that a mega-tsunami can race across the open ocean at up to 500 miles an hour, and when they...

<p>In ex-City Councilman Hal Bernson's day, Los Angeles was a leader in preparing for the Big One, the 7 magnitude or greater earthquake that geologists say is inevitable and overdue - and will be unleashed upon Los Angeles by the San Andreas, Hollywood, Puente Hills, Santa Monica or Newport-Inglewood fault.</p>

It's a terrifying vision: A violent eruption of Italy's Mount Etna triggers a massive collapse of one flank of the volcano, sending 35 cubic kilometers of debris--the equivalent of 10,000 Cheops pyramids--hurtling at 400 kilometers an hour into the Ionian Sea. The Big Splash unleashes a 50-meter-tall wall of water that, within a few hours, wipes out coastal settlements across the Mediterranean. This catastrophe happened 8000 years ago--and a Mediterranean monster of similar magnitude could happen again. That's the scenario invoked in an analysis in last week's Geophysical Research Letters. "It was an extraordinary event, probably the largest tsunami unleashed...