MemeMachineGo!

You’ve probably heard something in the news about a tsunami. Well, just in case you were sleeping well, there’s a volcano in the Canary Islands that has a big crack in it from an eruption in 1949. A chunk of rock the size of a small island has been slowly slipping into the Atlantic ever since. It’s predicted that another eruption could send it falling in all at once, with dramatic effects.

What will happen when the volcano on La Palma collapses? Scientists predict that it will generate a wave that will be almost inconceivably destructive, far bigger than anything ever witnessed in modern times. It will surge across the entire Atlantic in a matter of hours, engulfing the whole US east coast, sweeping away everything in its path up to 20km inland. Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then all the way down the coast to Miami and the Caribbean.

We’d have around 7-10 hours warning, if anyone were paying attention.

The U.S. government must be aware of the threat. I am sure they are not taking it seriously,” McGuire of the Benfield Grieg Hazard Research Centre told reporters. “They certainly should be worried, as should the island states of the Caribbean.” […] McGuire urged the governments of Spain and the United States to fund monitoring of the volcanically active La Palma — a project he said could be achieved relatively cheaply.

It last erupted in 1971. Its normal schedule is to erupt every 25 to 200 years. So it could happen pretty much at any time, and we should expect it to happen within the next couple of centuries.

But, hey, there’s no guarantee an eruption would collapse the volcano.

Have a nice day.