Both Coasts of Americas Seen Vulnerable to Tsunamis (We're ALL Gonna DIE !!! Alert)

Reuters ^ | Tue, Feb 08, 2005 | Maggie Fox

[presidio9]

Both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas are vulnerable to tsunamis like the one that devastated Indian Ocean shorelines in December and experts said on Tuesday they are scrambling to try to get warning system in place before politicians lose interest.

"It's not if but when," said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center run by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the United Nations (news - web sites) Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization.

She and other experts want to use momentum from the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed or left missing nearly 300,000 people to press for a global warning system.

Experts have been trying since a tsunami hit Chile's coast in 1960, but the disasters occur so infrequently that it is difficult to keep the attention of governments, she said.

The magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra lifted the sea floor 15 feet and displaced trillions of gallons of water, causing the monster wave that swamped coastlines as far away as Somalia.

The quake registered right away, but it took several hours for instruments to show just how large it was, Kong told a news conference arranged by the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites)'s magazine.

"What they didn't have information on was whether a real tsunami had been generated," she said. There were no underwater monitoring stations to measure the displacement of water.

There are such stations in the Pacific, where 85 percent of tsunamis occur, but not in other vulnerable areas.

George Maul, a professor of Oceanography at the Florida Institute of Technology, has been trying to organize a tsunami warning system for the Atlantic and Caribbean for years.

THREATS FROM VOLCANOES

There are several active Caribbean volcanoes that could set off an inundating wave, he said. There are also active zones in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa and off the coasts of Spain and Portugal that could generate tsunamis.

The best protection, he said, is a program to inform people about the warning signs of a tsunami so they can flee.

In January U.S. officials said they would spend $37.5 million over two years to set up new deep-sea warning systems aimed at giving near-total coverage for the U.S. coastline.

"We estimate that within 100 km (50 miles) of the coastline globally, there will be 600 million more people by 2025," Maul said.

The best system may be based on old air-alert sirens, said Timothy Walsh of the Washington Department of Natural Resources. He foresees a system of loudspeakers on poles hooked directly into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather warning system.

Many communities will have to be evacuated within half an hour or less of a big quake in the Northwest's Cascadia subduction zone, but roads could be damaged.

"The evacuation will have to be made by foot and right away," said Walsh.

It might also be possible to build earthquake- and tsunami-proof buildings, tall enough to survive inundation and strong enough to survive the battering they would take.

[ladyjane]

If you listen to the radio and hear that there is an earthquake or a volcano out there, head for high land. Whatever you do, if you are on a beach and the tide goes way out rapidly, do not follow it out!

[CzarNicky]

Then I'll say it. A tsunami coming off of lake Erie would actually make the city dirtier.

[exit82]

I was OK until I read your post.

If I see the tsunami, I'm just going to dive in.

[Our man in washington]

Man, if you think that's terrifying, you should check out this threat I read about today. It's this thing called "natural causes" and scientists are saying there's a high likelihood it could wipe out most people on earth in the next hundred years. We're all gonna die, I'm telling ya'!!!

[dzzrtrock]

big time body surfing (choose any floating body)

[LasVegasMac]

Many communities will have to be evacuated within half an hour or less of a big quake in the Northwest's Cascadia subduction zone, but roads could be damaged.

"The evacuation will have to be made by foot and right away," said Walsh.

Ummmmm......let's see here: Roads damaged, any bridges in my area? (yes, lots), 30 minutes to save my a$$, now I have to "evacuate by foot" - run my a$$ off.

Yep, I need more options.

LVM

[GeronL]

don't forget the south coast, if the gulf has a quake, its drenched.

[FreeKeys]

Interview:

Simon Day, Ph.D., Visiting Associate Research Geologist from University College, London, now in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of California - Santa Cruz, California: "At some stage in the future, La Palma might do the same. After a series of eruptions in each of which it moves a little bit, it could eventually collapse catastrophically and produce a landslide of a few hundred cubic kilometers, taking away the whole side of the volcano and dumping it into the ocean as a landslide. That's what would then generate the giant tsunami waves.
 
 

Cumbre Vieja Volcano Collapse Could Produce Mega-Tsunamis
20 to 55 Yards High On North and South American East Coasts

YOUR COMPUTER MODELING SHOWS THAT THE TSUNAMI COULD BE AS HIGH AS 55 YARDS (165 feet) IN BRAZIL.

You have to remember that the tsunami will be very much larger near the source and will then as it spreads out from a few very large waves into a series of smaller waves, it will diminish in height as it crosses the ocean. Then, of course, as tsunamis do, it will build up again on the other side. But the sorts of heights that the computer model is predicting for the Eastern seaboard in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean and for northern Brazil are in that sort of range ­ several tens of meters high as a maximum value.

IF SOMETHING WERE 55 YARDS, WHICH IS OVER 150 FEET, THAT WOULD BE AT LEAST A 15-STORY BUILDING.

Yeah, it's that sort of size. Following events in the Indian Ocean, we'll now have a comparison which is the tsunamis there ­ the La Palma collapse would produce a tsunami at least a few times larger in terms of wave heights than the tsunami in the Indian Ocean was. (Those very high waves) would be very close to source, but what we're talking about is the height of the wave as it reaches the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. So, along a much greater length of seaboard.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT NEW YORK, BOSTON, WASHINGTON, D. C. ­ WE'RE TALKING ABOUT ONE OF THE LARGEST POPULATION CORRIDORS IN THE UNITED STATES.

That's correct. I think one of the lessons from the Indian Ocean tsunami is just how much damage a tsunami can do when it strikes a densely populated coast line and particularly, those cities on the eastern seaboard that face the ocean directly. They would potentially be under very considerable threat from such a wave.

HAS THERE BEEN ANY 15-STORY-HIGH TSUNAMI ON RECORD FROM ANYTHING HAPPENING IN THE CANARY ISLANDS OR THAT AREA IN THE PAST?

Not in human historical record, because the last collapse of this type that occurred in the Canary Islands occurred at least 15,000 years ago, and perhaps much longer than that. But in terms of the geologic record, there have been a number of these volcanic collapses in the Canaries and also into other island groups in the Atlantic, like the Cape Verde Islands which are further south than the Canaries. So, in terms of the geologic record, these things are not unprecedented at all. [snip]
                             -- from  http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=851&category=Science
 

[spinestein]

Just wait until the YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO erupts.

You won't be safe in the interior of the USA either.

http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone.htm

[LasVegasMac]

(Why don't we worry about the New Madrid Fault, just for a change of pace?)

Odd that nobody worries about Charleston, South Carolina getting leveled by an earthquake again. Can't remember a thread I've even seen a mention of it. People are too obsessed with Yellowstone, etc.

It just does not happen often enough in your area. Short attention span, etc.

The bad news is that when it does happen - obviously it has, and will again - your area is on a solid plate, as opposed to broken pieces parts out here in the west.

The Charleston quake was felt well up into the NE, Chicago even.

The New Madrid "event" was the 'end of the world', as people then thought. And rightly so. Major tremors for 2 - 3 days, altered the course of the river, wow.

Still visible evidence of that "event" to this day.

Should the same type "event" happen today, the loss of life / destruction would be staggering.

I'm not pretending to be the oracle here, I just look at the USGA quake stuff on a regular basis. Most activity is out here in the west. But if you look back east, there is enough activity to let one know - things are moving.

LVM

[presidio9]

Note to self:

Do NOT Start threads like this after 11:00PM Eastern time...

[FreeKeys]

LOL !

[Qwinn]

Well, I'd rather that God just stuck a crowbar in the Delaware River and pried New Jersey off into the bottom of the Atlantic where it belongs... but if a tsunami is what it'll take, fine, I guess.

Qwinn

[Cyclops08]

If a tsunami actually hits, don't expect the world to help out. For all our charity, the US has only fair weather friends.

[MikeHu]

It looks like Reuters never got over their disappointment that the world did not end on midnight 2000.

They've predicted 10,000 of the last ten disasters the world has experienced.

[BJungNan]

[Tacis]

The good part is, of course, that if tsunamis hit the baby-killer-blue coast states, they will be able to take comfort in the knowledge that the disasters were caused by W's position on global warming.

[kb2614]

Both the east and west coasts are in danger of tsunamis because,,,


IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT!!!!!!!!!

[Once-Ler]

Both Coasts of Americas Seen Vulnerable to Tsunamis

This is obviously part of Rove's plan to squelch dissent.

[w6ai5q37b]

Actually the MIssissippi River had tsunamis in 1811-1812. Even it reversed its course for a few hours when one quake hit. Here's an account of one of the quakes:

Friday, January 31, 1812
THE EARTHQUAKE


Extract of a letter from a gentleman on his way to New Orleans, to a friend in this place (Lexington, Ky.) - dated 20th December.

"We entered the Mississippi on the morning of the 14th, and on the night of the 15th came to anchor on a sand bar, about ten miles above the Little Prairie - half past 2 o'clock in the morning of the 16th, we were aroused from our slumber by a violent shaking of the boat - there were three barges and two keels in company, all effected the same way. The alarm was considerable and various opinions as to the cause were suggested, all found to be erroneous; but after the second shock, which occurred in 15 minutes after the first, it was unanimously admitted to be an earthquake. With most awful feelings we watched till morning in trembling anxiety, supposing all was over with us. We weighed anchor early in the morning, and in a few minutes after we started there came on in quick successions, two other shocks, more violent than the former. It was then daylight, and we could plainly perceive the effect it had on shore. The bank of the river gave way in all directions, and came tumbling into the water; the trees were more agitated than I ever before saw them in the severest storms, and many of them from the shock they received broke off near the ground, as well as many more torn up by the roots. We considered ourselves more secure on the water, than we should be on land, of course we proceeded down the river. As we progressed the effects of the shock as before described, were observed in every part of the banks of the Mississippi. In some places five, ten and fifteen acres have sunk down in a body, even the Chickasaw Bluffs, which we have passed, did not escape; one or two of them have fallen in considerably.

See http://www.eas.slu.edu/Earthquake_Center/SEISMICITY/Nuttli.1973/nuttli-73-app.html