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Experts in the Azores have alerted the population of São Miguel Island for seismic activity which they considered to be above normal. The seismic events where located in the system of Fogo and Congro lakes, the central region of the island. “The situation is ongoing and the number of microseisms is slightly above reference values” said Wednesday João Luís Gaspar from the Center of Volcanology and Geological Risk Assessment (CVARG) of the University of the Azores.

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...

MADRID: 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 US 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...

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.”

It hardly raised a ripple when it was reported over the summer, but news that a tsunami could one day hit New York is suddenly getting a second look. Several months ago, geologists raised concerns that an unstable flank of a volcano in the Canary Islands off the coast of Western Africa could slide into the sea and send giant waves across the Atlantic at the speed of a jumbo jet. Within three hours, the wave could swamp the west coast of Africa. Within five hours, it could hit southern England, and within 12 hours, it could build up...

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

The Cascadia fault, a 600-mile-long collision between two chunks of the earth's crust off the Pacific Northwest coast, has been quiet for a long time, and that is not a comforting fact. Major earthquakes occur somewhere in the world every year or two. Catastrophic tsunamis - giant waves generated by undersea earthquakes or landslides - strike less often, and some of the largest of tsunamis originate in places that do not, at first glance, appear particularly treacherous. The devastating tsunamis created Dec. 26 by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that killed as many as 150,000 people on the shores of the...

One of the world’s most active volcanic areas is a relatively unknown part of the seabed between New Zealand and Tonga, and could trigger a devastating tsunami at any moment, ANU geologist Professor Richard Arculus warned today. While relatively little money is available for ocean research, submerged volcanoes pose a significant threat to communities across the Pacific, Professor Arculus said. “Over the last six years, research teams from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Germany have mapped a relatively narrow strip of ocean stretching about 2000 kilometres from the north of New Zealand to Tonga, and found 75 previously unknown...

Both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas are vulnerable to tsunamis like the one that devastated Indian Ocean shorelines in December and experts said on Tuesday they are scrambling to try to get warning system in place before politicians lose interest. "It's not if but when," said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center run by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the United Nations (news - web sites) Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization. She and other experts want to use momentum from the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed or left missing nearly 300,000 people...

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...

Tsunami Could Hit Here, Geologists Say BY JEREMY SMERD - Special to the Sun December 29, 2004 Could New York be next? The earthquake that ravaged coastline communities surrounding the Indian Ocean has reawakened a debate over the possibility that a tsunami could hit New York.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...