[ExI] Tsunami height)

[Alfio Puglisi]

2011/3/26 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>

> On Mar 25, 2011, at 4:57 PM, Ryan Rawson wrote:
>
> That's not a record either, the record for the tallest tsunami ever
> recorded is 524 meters (1,724 feet) at Lituya Bay Alaska on July 9 1958.
>
> But that was a special bay geography, typically one would not see that.
>
> I Hope you're right, but there has been speculation that a large eruption
> of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands could cause a
> landslide dropping 1.6 *10^13 tons of rock into the  4 mile deep ocean; it
> seems that a 1949 eruption formed a huge crack right across the island that
> some people find extremely disturbing. If this were to happen it would
> produce a tsunami 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) high at the island but a few hours
> later after it traveled thousands of miles and reached the eastern seaboard
> of the USA it would only be about 50 metres (164 ft) high.
>

I've been in La Palma island several times and, well, I can easily visualize
how it would happen. La Palma is an extremely beautiful place, sculpted by
volcanic eruptions. The main volcano (Caldera de Taburiente) is now
inactive, but when you stand on the rim and look down, it feels like you are
looking directly into the entrance of Hell. The Cumbre Vieja is located on
the southern part of the islands, and have been active in historical
times. For details about the possible tsunami, see:

http://wet.kuleuven.be/wetenschapinbreedbeeld/lesmateriaal_geologie/wardday-lapalmatsunami.pdf

 Alfio
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