Posted on 01/08/2005 5:25:54 AM PST by Gengis Khan
So, what would you do with your last eight hours on earth?
".Greenpeace will stop that wall of water from touching one brick."
They will invoke the POWER of GAIA!! OOOOOOOOM!
Sounds like a good idea except for one thing - the portion of the island that has sheared and moved four meters weighs a total of 500 BILLION TONS.
By way of comparison, the portion of the mountain that fell into the bay in Alaska in the 1950's that produced a mega-tsunami over 1,500 ft tall only weighed 500 MILLION TONS.
IOW, the Canary Island threat is a THOUSAND times greater than what happened in Alaska.
Will it happen anytime soon? It's easy to dismiss the threat were it not for several problems.
A huge portion of the island has SHEARED four meters from where it was originally and FELL by four meters. This portion is at an angle that if dislodged will fall into the ocean in the direction of the US (roughly WNW). There is a clearly defined fissure - if one were to imagine a giant pushing it, it'll fall right into the water, creating a huge splash.
Will the splash propagate a mega-tsunami? Some say yes, some say no but I happen to think so because I can observe similar wave propagations. Where? In WAVE POOLS. As anyone who goes to a wave pool knows, these waves rise up as the floor becomes shallow and can whallop quite a punch. I've tried and failed to maintain my position when getting hit by the waves.
We all know ships cause wakes, the larger and faster the ship; the greater the wake. And this is perpendicular to the ship that is cutting into the water with a narrow front. Now imagine how big that wake would be if the front of the ship was flat and headed towards you? Imagine if the displacement wasn't just in the thousands or tens of thousands of tons, but 500 billion, the width wasn't in the tens of meters but over 20 km and traveling at 200 km/h instead of 20 km/h?
Imagine the kinetic energy?! The entire Eastern seaboard, from the tip of Maine to Miami would be wiped out. Everything within 12 km of the shore would be gone, with upriver and inlet areas suffering further damage.
Let's go back to the island.
The island is comprised of hardened magma and porous rocks. Even now there are billions of tons of water in the ground on the island. When the volcano erupts again, it will do two things, it will HEAT the water inside the island that is BEHIND the shear. What will that do? Naturally, it will generate pressure behind the shear that PUSHES the portion even further away, causing the split to become even more pronounced. The second thing it will do is create earthquakes, that can shake the sheared portion loose. Will the next eruption be enough to send this 500-billion ton portion into the ocean? I hope not.
The threat needs to be examined seriously and the government should also examine whether it is possible to force the collapse. I.e., if terrorists or a foreign enemy detonates a nuclear device or a large amount of conventional explosives in strategic areas.
The potential payout to America's enemies is too great to disregard. After all, if I were a homicidal religious fanatic who wanted to inflict the greatest damage to America and I happened to buy a nuclear weapon; La Palma is where I'd want to plant it. The US should take steps to ensure anything that might happen on the island should never be allowed to harm America.
As a resident of the "left coast" let me thank you for your good wishes.
This is just more "Chicken-Little" reporting from idiots who were born without brains. Let's stop a moment and think about the damping effect of a tidal wave traveling between 2 and 3 thousand miles across open ocean. Like ripples across a pond, those tidal waves would be severely dampened by the time (if ever) that they reached the American east coast. Europe has far more to fear from this volcano exploding than America does.
Look at the impact of the tsunami on Somalia, versus its impact on Aceh Banda or Sri Lanka. Also, I think that the configuration of the ocean bottom also impacts how the tsunami responds at the surface. The configuration of the bottom of the Atlantic is substantially different from Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
So, in the FWIW Dept., I think this is just more "Chicken-Littles" scaring themselves into hysteria over an event that is simply too "what-iffy" to worry about. Or, in the words of the esteemed Bard, "Much ado about nothing".
Somebody needs to tell Bush about this.
Yeah, Discovery Channel replayed their tsunami show again Wednesday.
And, I'm sure these other countries would fall all over themselves trying to help out if the US was struck by some natural catastrophe.
Why, just this past summer and fall when those four hurricanes struck Florida....wait a minute!
Never mind.
I smell a plot for a movie...
Jimmy I think we should have let the asian countries procure their own aid for this disaster. How many countries sent aid for the vics of Ivan in Florida/Alabama?
I think our money could be better used for America and not a country who would be happy if we were nuked from existence. F-all those other countries except, Austraila, Italy, Britain and other friendly countries to America. They need to invest in some property insurance like the majority of Americans. What has FEMA done for you today?
What - earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods not good enough for ya?
Yeah we shouldnt even consider thinking about away . Just wait for one to blow
That way maybe thousands or even millions won't live longer
And, I guess there's a right way, and a wrong way...
Who knew?
Only if Michael Moore goes off the high dive again...
No I don't.
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