tsunami (Page 9)

If the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands were toerupt, it would send a giant tsunami wave towards the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. The eruption would cause a landslide that wouldgenerate a wave with energy equivalent to 6 months of U.S. electricity use.

Researchers Simon Day and Steven Ward say this will be an exceptionally large tsunami, traveling great distances at high speeds. As soon as Cumbre Vieja collapses, a huge dome of water will move underwater, producing a “wave train” pattern of crests and troughs. This tsunami will hit parts of Africa, Brazil, Florida and the Caribbean. A day later, the wave will reach London, then hit Spain, Portugal and France.
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Over one thousand years ago, a tsunami devastated the area where Seattle exists today?according to computer modeling?and researchers think it could happen again. About 900 AD, a powerful earthquake hit Seattle’s Puget Sound. The quake, located on the still-active Seattle fault, would have sent a giant tsunami throughout the sound.

The tsunami reached heights of 9 to 23 feet and traveled 18-28 miles per hour, and swept almost 100 feet into shore in some places. A wave that size can lift cars off the ground. Add those problems to gas lines severed after a quake, “and you’ve got the makings of a disaster,” says tsunami researcher Emile Okal.
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Scientists in Japan have discovered an underwater fault off the coast that could unleash a giant “tsunami” tidal wave that would engulf the mainland with almost no warning. The newly-detected fault, which is only a few miles from the land, may have been responsible for the 8.1 magnitude earthquake which struck Japan in 1944.

“Any tsunami would hit the mainland with only a few minutes’ warning,” says Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Center in the U.K. “Most people in Japan live along the coast and evacuating them in only a few minutes would be impossible.”
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