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What is a Mega Tsunami?
A Tsunami is
one or a series of waves that occur after an earthquake,
seaquake, volcanic
activity,
slumps, or asteroid
impacts in
or near the sea. A
mega tsunami is
simply a larger occurance of the phenomena. The energy of a tsunami is
constant, a function of its height and speed. Thus, as the wave
approaches land, its height increases while its speed decreases. The
waves travel at high speed, more or less unnoticed where crossing deep
water, but can increase to a height of 30 metres and more as they
approach the coastline. Tsunamis can cause severe destruction on coasts
and islands.
Though
tsunamis rarely go above 0.5 m in
height, the spaces between the crests can be hundreds of kilometers
allowing the wave to increase in height within the last 10-20m of water
before reaching the shore. Without the loss of energy, this
allows the wave to go ashore making a storm surge seem laughable.
These waves are capable of crossing an ocean, toppling large buildings
none of which could withstand the force of the wave, equivalent to the
speed of a commercial airplane, nor the extreme flooding.
When was the biggest tsunami?
The
biggest recorded tsunami was
produced by the Great
Kamchatka Earthquake
of 17 October 1737. Its peak
reached more than 50 m above sea level on the North Kurile Islands. The
Kamchatka Peninsula has the greatest frequency of tsunami, about one
event every 12 years. The largest death toll recorded for a tsunami was
over 50,000 people on the island of Taiwan on 22 May 1782, followed by
36,417 deaths caused by tsunami associated with the eruption of
Krakatau in the Sunda Straits of Indonesia on 27 August 1883. There are
probably larger death tolls, but there is no way to be positive.
Where could the next Mega Tsunami come from
A volcano
named Cumbre Vieja on the
island of La Palma in the Canary Islands of North Africa is where
geologists suspect the next tsunami could begin. The reason for
the concern... In 1949 during a volcanic
eruption part of the
island slid into the ocean before ending its descent. Should
another large eruption of the Cumbre Vieja occur, the western side of
the island is likely to collapse into the Atlantic.
Predicting the
next eruption isn't a likely happening; geologists
cannot say whether or not the next eruption will be the one to make the
island shed its western shore. Until then, we have to watch and
wait.
500 billion tons
of rock creating five thousand trillion, (that's
fifteen zeros), joules of kinetic energy, that is transferred and
converted to a 600 to a thousand meter tall wave with excessive
speeds. Ten minutes and it will have traveled 250 kilometers, all
the while powered by the underwater landslide. |
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Immense Destruction
Generated
by an earthquake in
Arica,
Chile in 1877, a tsunami measured at 1.07m, the largest on the Sydney
(Australia) tidal gauge, In May 1960 another one measured less than
0.8m amounted to a 4.5m run up above sea level that traveled along
parts of the coast line. The amount of destruction caused by the
inevitable Canary Island tsunami would dwarf these numbers by far,
causing massive devastation to all shoreline cities, rivers and inland
bodies of water connected to the ocean at the point of impact.
Becoming a
lower wider wave (15-20 m high) by
the time it made its way to America would surge up to 20 miles past the
shoreline leaving a path of watery destruction in its wake. Major
coastal cities would be in essence washed off the map, skyscrapers
would be leveled and swept away, bridges would be torn away from their
foundations, and human life would cease to exist by this destructive
force in mere minutes.
How can we stop it?
Not
to be pessemistic, but we can't.
Phenomena of this magnitude literally HAVE no way to be diverted. These
are natually occuring events, and next to the awesome force of mother
nature, man would not stand much chance. Even evacuations would be a
futile effort. For all the people living on say : the east coast and
everywhere inland withing 10-20 miles, there would really not be an
easy means to escape. You would have millions in panic, piling in their
cars... it would be the worst kind of chaos.
The only
alternative is evacuating when the volcano
(Canaries) starts
to erupt, possibly giving a few days or weeks warning. This plan may
sound good, but having a massive
earthquake
or a random asteroid crash
into the ocean would not give us more than a few hours of warning, if
any at all.
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