[AaronInCarolina]

...so I guess that means it's going to be on Discovery.

Beware of specials on Discovery. Right after the Indian Ocean Tsunami, The Discovery Channel ran a special several times that made irresponsible sensational claims about a volcano, Cumbre Vieja, on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands off the coase of North Africa. In the special, they claimed that a side of the volcano could suffer a landslide which would spur a "mega-tsunami" that would deluge the whole East Coast of America. They were claiming the wave from such a tsunami could reach 300 feet at Miami, FL. They said it would dwarf the earthquake-generated Indian Ocean tsunami. This is absolute hogwash, according to all but a handful of geologists. The "Tsunami Society" was very critical of such claims. Yet Discovery ran with it over and over because it was sensationalized by the Indian Ocean tsunami. They needlessly scared a lot of people to get a few more ratings points. I no longer trust the Discovey Channel.

[Pyro7480]

I saw that claim in other places. What's the truth?

[Phsstpok]

Actually, the Mega Tsunami science show isn't new. It was done several years ago and has been shown several times on Discovery Channel. Just like the several volcano shows and the earthquake shows, along with the asteroid impact shows and the existing Supervolcano science show from a few years ago.

It's also not hogwash. It's a recognized theory of cataclysmic events with a very strong base of geologic evidence, primarily backed up by research on and around the Hawaiin Islands.

Long run out avalanches, of the type found around the Hawaiin Islands, are established fact, not speculation. The estimates of the resulting tsunamis predicted specific impact signatures on the other islands and on both the mainland of North American and Asia. Many examples of the predicted signatures have been found.

USGS has contributed to this research for several years.