It is widely known that in past history, parts of these Islands slip into the Atlantic and causes a Monster Tsunami - and is a threat to east coast
USA.
Magnitude 6.0 - AZORES ISLANDS REGION
2009 November 04 18:41:44 UTC
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Scientific & Technical
Earthquake Details
Magnitude 6.0
Date-Time Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at 18:41:44 UTC
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at 04:41:44 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 36.120°N, 33.893°W
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region AZORES ISLANDS REGION
Distances 445 km (275 miles) SW of Santa Cruz das Flores, Azores, Portugal
540 km (335 miles) WSW of Horta, Azores, Portugal
750 km (465 miles) W of Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
2205 km (1370 miles) W of LISBON, Portugal
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.5 km (4.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=190, Nph=190, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.88 sec, Gp= 72°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID us2009npbe
[edit on 5-11-2009 by Anti-Evil]
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It is a scary potential of which you speak.
But unless we are talking about the Cumbre Vieja volcanic region (which is nearby) I wouldn't fret over megatsunamis just yet.
That doesn't invalidate the possibility of tidal waves (though I wish it did). Even those can be tremendous killers, but when a gigantic chunk of
the Cumbre Vieja slides into the ocean... we're talking about an apocalyptic scenario for the east coast of North America.
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Cumbre Vieja is in the Canary Islands (although the Azores are Volcanic themselves, but the slopes arent landslip prone so pose little to no danger
themselves.)
The main concern from the Azores Islands would come from the Shelf they sit upon which is just above the Atlantic shelf, any tremor above +6.0 could
potentially release a underwater landslip from overhanging precipices which would displace the ocean water, but wouldnt be evident recordabally until
it was too late when the wave was beginning to break shore off the Eastern US some 7 hours later.
The risk with the Cumbre Vieja is that as the Volcano within the Island becomes active again, "reservoirs" become superheated and expand to the
point in which the outer crust of the Volcano begins to break, a lower segment of the Volcano did this in a previous active phase but the fault failed
(luckily/unluckily) to slip into the sea. Its thought the next eruption would send 1/4 of one side of the Volcano entirely Westards into the Atlantic
towards the Eastern Seaboard of the US. the energy displacement would be at least 1000x more colossal than that seen during the Boxing Day Tsunami in
the Indian Ocean.
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If I were the USA, I would post a submarine there.. You know how tempting to Russia it would be to set that off, and cause complete collapse of the
United States? 1 Russian Sub could cause that to slide with ordnance...
I just hope the US is monitoring that area...
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The landslip is trillions upon trillions of tonnes in weight, a nuclear weapon wouldnt make any difference to its dynamic in terms of weakening the
structure as its source of weakness comes from within the Volcano where the "reservoirs" lie, expanding the inner Island and cracking the outer
layers.
Blowing a nuclear bomb on the surface would probobally kill a million or two inhabitants/tourists but as for the physical aspect of the Island itself,
all that would change would be a little hole in the ground and some charred tree's.
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