300-foot-tsunami-from-canary-islands-to-bring-destruction-to-the-atlantic-and-us-east-coast

300 Foot Tsunami and East Coast Destruction

‘Hierro’, a volcano and island of the Canary Islands of Spain (named ‘El Hierro’), summits at 1500 meters (4,900 feet), and has gone through periods of highly active earthquake swarms – which leads some to believe that someday ‘something’ may happen. A tsunami.

Super Tsunami

el-hierro-island-volcano

About El Hierro: Massive Landslide

After three successive eruptions, and consequent accumulations, the island emerged from the ocean as an imposing triangular pyramid volcano.

El Hierro has the largest number of volcanoes in the Canaries with over 500 open sky cones, another 300 covered by the most recent outflows, and some 70 caves and volcanic galleries.

130,000 years ago (some reports say 50,000 years ago), seismic tremors produced massive landslides at El Hierro as a giant piece of the island split off and crashed down into the ocean, scattering along the seafloor.

The submarine landslide, which consisted of approximately 300 cubic kilometers of earth, resulted in the creation of the huge amphitheater of the El Golfo valley, and more importantly caused a super tsunami that most likely rose over 100 meters high, 300 feet, and probably reached as far away as the American coast.

300 Foot Tall Tsunami

Trying to imagine a 300 foot tall tsunami is nearly unimaginable. Knowing the devastation that was caused by the tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan which themselves reached heights ranging between 20 and 50 feet, and the devastation that followed…

The reality is that the odds of such an occurrence is low at any given time. However we cannot escape the fact that sometimes the seemingly random behavior of the geophysical world that we live in — will occasionally unleash devastation.

‘If’ Hierro were to shake itself to the point where another huge chunk of the island plunged into the sea, the potential super tsunami would reach European shorelines in an hour or a few, while the United States east coast would probably be hit in about 6 hours time.

Knowing that the March-2011 major tsunami that tragically hit Japan also traveled 4,000 miles the other direction across the Pacific to produce an approximate 3 foot tsunami on some areas of the United States west coast, the approximate ratio was 10:1 as the wave finally reached the United States coastline.

Tsunami Height?

There are many factors that are at work to determine tsunami height, and this is highly over-simplifying the formula.

But the point is that if a Hierro submarine landslide and subsequent tsunami hit the United States east coast (which is 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands), the tsunami height could potentially be 30 to 40 feet at a minimum (in my estimation) – while some suggest much higher depending on the terrain leading up to the shoreline.

A tsunami like this might completely cover most of Long Island New York, Cape Cod Massachusetts, much of New York City, Boston, and countless other cities and towns up and down the highly populated east coast harboring millions upon millions of people. How about the state of Florida which is only feet about sea level… Unthinkable.

How Far Inland Would a 300-Foot Tsunami Go?

Why mention this at all, and what can we do about it anyway?

It’s good to simply be aware of the possibilities, which may lead to further preparedness by some who’ve never thought of it before.

While doing our best to temper any ‘doom and gloom’, at the same we understand the unpredictability of some things – while also weighing the odds.

Given the the tremors and swarms that sometimes occur at Hierro, and although the odds are low, who’s to say more of the island won’t slump into the sea one day and produce a tsunami scenario?

25 Comments

  1. I have read about this possiblity a few times in other sources. So, you are not the only one thinking of this.

  2. well, I think it is good of you to dig this up and post it for us.

    I don’t have a good grasp of the consequences of many of these natural happenings, but I do understand them to be serious. often after I have read many articles on them, it does “gell” better.

    I realise this is likely a silly question,
    but after the Fukoshima earthquake which resulting in Nuclear Malfunction, I have a couple of questions keep running through my mind…

    a)how many earthquakes (as they seem frequent there) can Japan actually tolerate before it slides into the water?

    b)how many more nuclear accidents/meltdowns can Japan tolerate before it causes
    —huge earthquakes which result in more of “s”
    —–radiation poisoning of most of the population of Japan

    these questions do keep running through my mind. seriously.
    keep wondering if at some point, the U.N, will declare/acknowledge Japan is at serious risk/uninhabitable due to a and b, and declare that some other country (U.S. / Canada?) MUST give up area of land to re settle the population of Japan

    1. If you look it up, our CA Coast isn’t in better shape. Early 1900’s SF Quake anyone?

      1. yes, that too

        lots of earthquake, and I think volcano activity all along the west coast of North America..

      2. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a VERY DANGEROUS DISASTER waiting to happen, given the coastal cities there in the northwest. The quake itself will be devastating, and the subsequent tsunami will finish it off, so to speak…

      3. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was a “slip strike” quake, which do not produce tsunamis (generally). It is the thrust quakes in the ocean – literally thrusting huge volumes of water upward and out – that spread the waves. These are caused by plate movement.

      4. Of course because the Cascadia subduction zone is near a very populated area and it can happen any minute and so many lives will be lost and it is extremely dangerous and especially a 50 to 100 foot tsunami crashing a shore destroying everything including the west coast but the thing is it under the sea where it Subducts under the north American one strong earth quake will wreak the west coast

  3. You said it probably won’ happen in our lifetime… let’s hope it stays that way. I really don’t need everyone i know to be underwater while im perfectly safe in the cornfields of Indiana. Not cool.

  4. 300ft tsunami? How about a 1700ft one.

    Since the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami scientists have been doing some closes evaluations of coastlines throughout the world for evidence of past tsunami evidence. The results of some of the findings are a little bit chilling. No continent has escaped some sort of tsunami in the past 1000 years. Multiple tsunamis have gone backwards and forwards between the west coast of the two Americas and Japan.
    Japan even has written documentation detailing past tsunamis.

    The great Kanto earthquake of 1923 struck Japan in the Tokyo area. 140,000 people were killed. 33ft Tsunamis hit areas of the east coast.
    The Fukashima power plant built on the coast with tsunami protection less than 33ft was designed by those in denial.

    1. Japan earthquake measurements are called the Shindo Scale, also known as the Omori Scale, which was created by Fusakichi Omori in 1894.
      It’s different to the Richter scale.
      Japan is a country on the famed “Ring of Fire”. Geological events have been documented in Japan for hundreds of years. The science existed at the time of construction.

      Fukashima was designed to withstand a category 7.9 earthquake (on Japanese scale or Mag 8 on the Richter scale). Designed to automatically shutdown the reactors and withdraw the nuclear fuel rods. There maybe some evidence to suggest that peripheral cooling piping works were compromised by the 9.0 event. The Kanto earthquake was estimated to be mag Richter 7.9.
      The plant was not designed for the level of tsunami waves that occurred.
      Uplift of the giant Buddha statue on Kyoto was 2 feet in the 1923 Kanto quake.

      Japan is a country on the famed “Ring of Fire”. Geological events are documented for hundreds of years. The science existed at the time of construction.

  5. Have been keeping up with this for years , ever since I heard Art Bell talking about it , this could have grave consequences for this country , as there is no type of block between us and the Canary Islands . My family and I live in Mississippi and it could even affect us due to the Gulf of Mexico , it might not be as bad as what the east coast would suffer , but it will probably be disastrous . Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

  6. Perhaps a more dire threat is the extinct volcano on La Palma island just south of El Hierro. Estimates are 100′ tall tsunami traveling roughly 500 mph. The faults above ground are being consistently monitored.

  7. It all comes down to a saying I heard and still believe from Decades ago “Mother Nature is a *itch”.

  8. I live on the eastern end of long island. Yes the very very end of it.
    This has me very concerned. I dont know what to do !

    1. Head out to sea before the tsunami arrives. The wave only gets high when it reaches shore.

  9. Check out the link below which describes the highest tsunami ever recorded, a wave 1720 feet high which hit in Alaska in 1958. Yes, in recent times. Yes, in the US of A. And yes, generated by an earthquake which loosened a bunch of rock that fell into the water. The dynamics of this were caused by the local topography and the wave struck only a limited area. But there is no reason to believe that what has already happened, could not happen again, in a different place, with more extensive effects.

    It has only been 10 years during which 2 devastating tsunamis have occurred – the one in the Indian Ocean in 2004, and then Japan. I am baffled by those who think nothing is likely to happen in our lifetimes….. the 2004 one killed something like 250,000 people and the radiation consequences of Fukushima have changed the world forever, and are continuing to spew out dangerous material. If you read up on it, the sea life in the Pacific is taking a major hit, quite possibly more than it will ever recover from, and it is spreading with the currents to other bodies of water. And the radiation is now in the transpiration cycle, increasingly so for the foreseeable future, and our rainwater will be increasingly radioactive. This is a first in the history of the world. The technology to fix the problem does not yet exist.

    http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml

  10. After doing a little more research, that 300 foot figure is trough to peak, thus the actual HEIGHT would only be 150 feet. The predicted inland incursion – even in Florida – would only be a few miles. The Bahamas would bear the brunt of the effects.

    1. How to prepare for that? Best thing is to have a NOAA weather alert radio. It will warn you if it’s coming. Then, if you live along the water, simply get out to higher ground – depending on the magnitude of the situation.

      Just posted this:
      Ice Storm Preparedness – Are You Ready?

Comments are closed.