An unstable volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands could rupture and fall into the sea, creating a monstrous “megatsunami” that could wipe out the US east coast within hours, a scientist has warned.
However, it remains an open scientific question as to when – or even if – such a catastrophe will occur.
Volcanologist Professor Bill McGuire is monitoring Cumbre Vieja, a volcano with the potential to create a deadly transatlantic tsunami, according to an article he published in BBC Science Focus.
Growing concern is focused on a huge rock wall, also known as a “flank,” slowly approaching the sea and which would displace a biblical amount of water if it collapsed, McGuire said.
“Based on extensive studies, I expect that this portion of the flank will eventually crash into the North Atlantic, thereby triggering a megatsunami,” he wrote.
“There were enormous, sometimes very heated, debates and discussions about the level of destruction expected and, in particular, whether devastating waves would reach the shores of North America.”
To support the potential for these waves to travel across the ocean, researchers report massive, displaced rocks deposited along the coasts of the Bahamas.
Geologists believe that prehistoric tsunamis from the Canary Islands transported these rocks across the Atlantic, leaving physical evidence that the effects of flank collapses can spread beyond the ocean.
The worst-case scenario would be waves up to 65 feet high that could reach the East Coast within nine hours if the flank collapses, according to McGuire’s computer simulations.
Above all, experts emphasize that an Atlantic catastrophe is not imminent.
Although the wave itself would move at the speed of an airliner once generated, the collapse itself might not occur for centuries or even millennia.
“I have no doubt that this will be a cataclysmic event, but I have no idea when it will happen – it could easily be centuries or even millennia,” McGuire noted.
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