GIANT WAVES threat to Puerto Rico

[El_Jibaro]

DEADLY GIANT WAVES, LONG A PACIFIC THREAT, MAY ENDANGER ATLANTIC COASTS TOO

Associated Press
Monday, August 27, 2001


WASHINGTON — Giant ocean waves could slam into the East Coast if a volcano across the Atlantic in the Canary Islands splits open, two scientists warn.


The Cumbre Vieja volcano last erupted in 1949. It has not shown any recent indications of activity, but the threat could become real someday.

If a new eruption caused an existing rift across the volcano to split open, a massive landslide could crash into the ocean. That could send waves rushing across the Atlantic -- striking Cape Canaveral, Fla., for example, just nine hours later, according to geophysicists Steven N. Ward of the University of California at Santa Cruz and Simon Day of University College, London.

In what they said was a worst-case scenario, a wave nearly 70-feet high could strike parts of the East Coast. Giant waves also could crash into Africa and northeast South America.

Ward stressed that is unlikely and that smaller landslides would produce waves one-fourth to half that height.

"Let's not scare people," Ward said. "Certainly there is no indication that this will happen anytime soon."

"Even when there is an eruption, the probability of collapse is low," Day said. "There may be many eruptions before the volcano is finally weak enough to collapse."

Peter Lipman, a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., agreed that the threat exists from the volcano on the island of La Palma, off Africa's northwest coast. He, too, was cautious about when such a disaster might occur.

"These oceanic island volcanoes are, in geologic time, very subject to exactly the kind of process they describe," he said. "Volcanoes try to keep on adding lava to a steep slope and eventually they get the slope so loaded that it fails."

"I don't see this as something that is likely to happen very often at La Palma," he said. "But it had a failure like this half a million years ago and will again in the future."

Volcanologist Tom Simkin of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History agreed that the threat, though small, does exist.

"We all know that big landslides do happen. It doesn't happen very often, but often enough that we ought to be paying attention to it," he said.

Ward and Day's findings are reported in the Sept. 1 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

The massive wave, known as tsunami (soo-NAHM-ee), long have been known as a danger around the Pacific Ocean, where warning centers monitor the sea and alert coastal residents.

The waves have not received much attention as a hazard in the Atlantic. They are most often generated by earthquakes or landslides under the sea and are occasionally, incorrectly, referred to as tidal waves.

The most recent tsunami on the East Coast occurred in 1929 when a landslide off Newfoundland created a large wave that killed 30 people in Nova Scotia, Day said.

Unlike surface waves, tsunamis reach all the way to the sea floor. In mid-ocean they may hardly be noticeable, but as they approach shore the sea floor rises and so does the wave above it, potentially rising to giant status. And they travel very fast.

Ward and Day describe the worst case results of a potential volcano collapse in their paper, noting that the rift across Cumbre Vieja runs general north to south, with the potential for collapse on the western -- ocean -- side of the volcano facing the Americas.

Within five minutes of the collapse, a wave 1,500 feet high has zoomed 30 miles out to sea; at 10 minutes it is down to 900 feet and slamming into nearby islands; from 15 minutes to 60 minutes the series of waves moves outward, with 150-foot crests arriving at the African coast. Spain and England feel waves of 15 feet to 20 feet because the island of La Palma blocked most of the wave in that direction.

After six or more hours, waves of 30 feet or so arrive at Newfoundland and 45-foot to 60-foot waves strike the northeast coast of South America. At about nine hours the East Coast of the United States feels waves ranging from 30 feet to 70 feet.

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[i][b]El_Jíbaro Comments:

A wave 60 feet high coming from the Canary Islands at 600 miles per hour crashing on Culebra, Vieques and Puerto Rico will result in the actual wave crest rising 10 times its original size when it reaches the shoreline: 600 feet high!!! According to those same geophysicists the wave length measures around 30 miles across, and that is the WIDTH of Puerto Rico (short by 5 miles)...

Therefore, if an event like this ever happened, count on San Juan and northern coastal towns in Puerto Rico being WIPED OUT by a 600 foot WAVE CREST, and the sea rising 60 feet for 30 miles inland during a the time it takes for that water mass to pass through...

Any town below 60 feet above the Sea Level will be instantly washed out by a 600 mph sea water flow...

The ONLY SURVIVING TOWNS will be those in the CORDILLERA CENTRAL.

Of the almost 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico less than 25% will survive instant dismemberment and drowning.

Vieques and Culebra will be completely wiped out of human inhabitants.

All Navy ships and tourist cruise ships not out at sea will be completely destroyed if they are anywhere near land.

[Leticia_g]

Jibaro,
I know this isn't the religion section but isn't it mentioned somewhere in the bible about the great floodings and I believe it is one of the predictions of Nostradamus also.

Maybe we should move to Colorado, after all it has the highest point in the USA.

[Patria_y_LaPava]

I wouldnt believe in the prophisies of Nostradamus if I was you. He also predicited in July of 1999 something from the sky will fall upon the earth and all things will be destroyed, well its 2001, Im waiting...

[El_Jibaro]

Originally posted by Leticia_g Jibaro,
I know this isn't the religion section but isn't it mentioned somewhere in the bible about the great floodings and I believe it is one of the predictions of Nostradamus also.

Maybe we should move to Colorado, after all it has the highest point in the USA.

[i]However, in the Bible, the Book of the REVELATION the Apostle John had from JESUS, the elderly John (he may have been 80 or 90 years old) saw the following:

Revelation 8:6-13
The Trumpets

6Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

7The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water-- 11the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

12The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

13As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

Now, the entire four events may be the result of a mountain-size asteroid falling on Earth, or they can be different physical events ocrring in the same time frame (like the "huge mountain" set ablaze can be that Canary Island volcano mentioned in the news article), but in any case for 1/3 of the ships in the world to sink means that we have one huge TSUNAMI in our hands. Nothing is mentioned on how many people drown because of this disaster, but another Book in the Bible (i.e., Genesis 9:8-11) does have CLEAR AND DEFINITE Promise made by GOD that HE would not flood the entire Earth again. However, Revelation also mentions that ALL MOUNTAINS AND ISLANDS WILL DISAPPEAR (Revelation 6:14 and Revelation 16:20), one reason I want my entire family to move over here to the States within the next 25 years.

It is logical that if an asteroid (or comet) big enough, but not too big, impacts the Earth, the impact energy will get the Tectonic Plates moving again, and as you may have learned in high-school: most if not all mountains and islands are at the boundaries between Tectonic Plates. Puerto Rico itself is the boundary of one of those Tectonic Plates... The Earth's surface is like an egg shell floating over molten rock, which is composed of many shell sections called Tectonic Plates, all of which are moving, with some moving apart or against each other (like our Puerto Rico case) and other plates are grinding negatively parallel to each other (like the Andreas Fault).[b]

By the way, moving to a MOUNTAIN would be the same as moving to an ISLAND when the events in Revelation happen, so moving to the Colorado region is not such a great idea...

[Leticia_g]

Jibaro,
Thanks for the bible quotes. I knew it was mentioned in the Bible but I didn't remember what part of it. I should have figured that it would be in Revelation.

I could see why you want your relatives out of Puert Rico, however if we have a tidal wave, I think the entire east coast would be gone. Also, if all mountains and islands disappear, the impact of that change on the earth itself would most likely kill everyone.

[El_Jibaro]

If the Canary Island volcano blows half of the Cumbre Vieja into the the Atlantic we will have a 9 hour window to drive up Pennsylvania. Now according to those geologists the Mega-Tsunami will be down to 60 feet high by the time it reaches the North East, down from the original 1000 feet. Upon reaching the shore it may rise up to 600 feet, but its wavelength will only be around 40 kilometers (27 miles). Thus, the flooding of New Jersey and other coastal regions would encompass half of New Jersey (though I would speculate that the Delaware River may rise up som 20 to 40 feet in upcurrent flow). The thing is to have a PLAN (like fire-drills). The first to heed the Warning and head for the hills will be better off. Material possessions will have to be totally abandoned in such a case.

Now, if the event is ASTRONOMICAL in nature, i.e., an asteroid or comet impact, such a body MUST BE VISIBLE days or months before its occurence. That gives enough time to evacuate and to pinpoint point of impact; which will probably be in water. In this case wiping out of the North-East coast may happen without ANY loss of life.

However, if the event is the Cumbre Vieja volcano, Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico have almost NO CHANCE except those rich enough to get out by plane and those who drove up the Cordillera Central. Remember, Puerto Rico will have only a little over 6 hours to evacuate, and that is not time enough for almost 4 Million people to leave by airplane. To leave on a ship would be suicidal...

This is why I want my family over here. I tiny Island in the Caribbean is not worth the lives of my parents, aunts-uncles and cousins.

[Edited by El_Jibaro on 14th September 2001 at 19:25]

[El_Jibaro]

[i]Concerning geological changes, yes mountains and islands disappearing would be a world catastrophe, happily those changes will not happen in hours but they will take days-weeks-months and perhaps a few years to happen after the Revelation chapter 8 events.

The same Book of Revelation does predict a GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE toppling ALL THE CITIES OF THE WORLD (Revelation 16:17-19), which would be a logical result of geological Plate Tectonics shifting as a consequence of an asteroid impact. The Twin Towers collapse will seem a tiny disaster compared to that event. However, according to the Book of Revelation those geologic events will not be caused by evil terrorists, but by explicit command of the CREATOR of All Humanity with the sole purpose of bringing humanity to repent of their sins. Bear in mind that the CREATOR of the Universe could just with one word make us to cease to exist without any geological catastrophe at all...[b] And since this was written around 90 A.D., we have had almost 2000 years to be aware of them; all the Bibles of the world have the events written in them.