Posted on 08/09/2004 10:27:49 AM PDT by Truth666
The bad news is tens of millions of people along the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada may drown if the slow slippage of a volcano off north Africa becomes a cataclysmic collapse.
But the good news is the world is not likely to be destroyed by an asteroid any time soon.
Scientist Bill McGuire told that some time in the next few thousand years the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma will collapse, sending walls of water 100 meters high racing across the Atlantic.
A chunk of the volcano [Cumbre Vieja, western flank of the Canary Island of La Palma] the size of a small island began to slide into the ocean in 1949. There is almost no monitoring of the volcano, giving virtually no chance of any advance warning of another eruption which could trigger the catastrophe.
He said the slow collapse -- started by an eruption in 1949 -- would almost certainly be turned catastrophic by another eruption of the volcano which erupts every 25 to 200 years.
The last eruption was in 1971, and prior to 1949, the previous eruption was in 1712.
"A future president of the United States must make a call on what to do when La Palma collapses," he said.
On a brighter note, scientist Benny Peiser of John Moores University in Liverpool told the same news conference that the threat of a cataclysmic strike on the earth by a large asteroid was fading rapidly as money was pumped into finding them.
Within 10 to 30 years, all the near-earth asteroids will have been charted. Scientists believe they can find a way to steer an asteroid out of the way of the earth, as long as they have enough warning it is coming.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.co.uk ...
Big deal - they're almost all Kerry voters anyway...
"A future president of the United States must make a call on what to do when La Palma collapses," he said.
Kerry's Vietnam service should be sufficient to avert this disaster.
President Kerry will consider a nuanced, sensitive response to the crisis, right up to the moment that the wave smashes the White House...
It's always something.
What about the moon-sized asteroid that is flying between stars right now that will pass through this system ten times faster than a near earth asteroid and smash directly into the moon or the earth? They will see it about ten minutes before it hits.
It must be a slow day in the newsroom.
OK.
This tsunami will potentially destroy the entire 2000 mile Eastern seaboard, even though the area of the volcano collapse is only a few square miles.
OK.
The volcano will apparently go out of its way to harm the US, but leave the coasts of Africa, Europe and South America completely untouched.
OK.
I guess if you have a degree you can make any crazy claims you like.
I've seen a one hour documentary on this, the threat is real...I just don't know about the timing.
The timing of this is very suspect. The VRWC is attempting to draw attention away from Kerry's campaign. They must be stopped.
The volcano will apparently go out of its way to harm the US, but leave the coasts of Africa, Europe and South America completely untouched.
The tens of dollars of damage it could do to Africa and South America was not considered newsworthy.
I don't question that. I'm just saying that this story isn't about collapsing mountains - check the bold parts
Howard Dean leaps to mind.
IIRC, one of the Hawaiian Islands is cracking and is expected to do the same thing in the Pacific. I dont know if the 'wave' is to be aimed at the US or not.
Besides, its far more likely the west coast will be swamped by a megawave originating from gargantuan subsurface rock slides in the Hawaiian islands. At least theres a precedent for that.
I saw that documentary too. It's a very REAL threat, and it's going to happen. Like you, I don't know when, but it will wipe out much of the east coast.
It's over three times as bad as you thought.
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