Originally posted by caitlinfae
I'm replying to bump this up a little just to keep it getting noticed. El Hierro and Cumbre Vieja, both in the Canary Islands, both are huge threats
if eruptions generate landslides. Although any generated waves will take up to 8 hours to cross the Atlantic, the African, European, and UK coastlines
will be affected much sooner. A tsunami *could* hit the south coast of the UK in around 3 hours, which could be even more devasting if it happened in
the middle of the night...how many people would have just no warning at all? Let's hope it just doesn't happen.
Unfortunately, this theory was proposed by a couple of scientists / geologists and the MSM jumped all over it. In actual fact, the overwhelming amount
of geologists that have seen the same data have seriously challenged this viewpoint - both in terms of potential tsunami size but also, and far more
importantly, even on the fact that either could slide into the sea on anything like the scale proposed.
In other words, i really wouldn't worry about it.
That said, the Canary Islands are a potentially very violent part of the world. If i lived on Hierro at the moment, i would be very, very worried -
the whole island lifting 5cm in only 4 days is pretty spectacular. it may only sound a small rise, but in that time scale that is very worrying,
particularly as it shows that at present there is no active vent for it to rise from.
Several earthquakes in Tenerife over the last few years too - wouldn't want to be there if Teide has a violent eruption. Had a book once i borrowed
from an old geology professor that had half a chapter on Teide. It demonstrated that in a Vesuvius (AD 79) type eruption, the island would be covered
by a minimum of 20 ft of ash! The geological strata of the island shows that this volcano is certainly capable of producing this type of explosion,
although it should be noted that there haven't been any particularly violent eruptions for quite a while.
(That's how old I am, by the way...
)
