Cumbre Vieja

USA ON TSUNAMI ALERT!

A tsunami is a wave produced by a disturbance that displaces a large mass of water - usually a result of geologic (under the ground) activities such as earthquakes, volcanoes, underwater landslides, or meteor strikes.

After such a disturbance, displaced water travels outward from its site of origin as a series of unusually large waves at great speeds.

What is a tsunami?

http://youtube.com/v/uCqUoPaaH0I

What causes a Tsunami? - 1. Undersea Earthquake

What causes Tsunami? - 2. Landslide into the sea

A bit like...

http://youtube.com/v/EW3ulK0f4Q8

Tsunami caused by landslide

Label the diagram task.

In general, most tsunamis range from several centimeters to tens of meters. Sometimes they are only centimetres high and hardly noticeable.

On the other extreme is the mega-tsunami, which can reach heights of several hundred meters.

How big can tsunamis get?

The Canary Islands are a volcanic island-arc chain located in the Atlantic Ocean.

La Palma is one of the most volcanically active of the islands. It has 3 large volcanoes on it.

It is home to the most active volcano of the Canaries, Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted in 1949 and 1971.

It is here that there is a possible ticking time bomb - large tsunami creation in the Atlantic Ocean.

Cumbre Vieja

The west side (flank) of the Cumbre Vieja volcano may experience catastrophic failure during a future eruption, resulting in a landslide of a block of 15-20 km in width and 15-25 km long into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Geographers suggests that such an event could trigger a massive mega-tsunami hundreds of meters in height that would travel quickly in westerly direction across the Atlantic ocean.

Within 9 hours, an estimated 10-25 meter wave could reach the US east coast.

Cumbre Vieja

http://youtube.com/v/ArcWdSjAkRY

Tsunami energy travelling across the ocean.

Mapping task

http://youtube.com/v/oMH5YyJu8GQ