Madrid (dpa) – A volcanic eruption causes the Spanish island of La Palma to collapse, sending millions of tonnes of rock crashing into the sea and triggering a 650-metres-high wall of water.
The giant wave devastates parts of Europe as far as the British coast and sweeps across the Atlantic, swamping the Caribbean islands and the eastern seaboard of the United States. The Statue of Liberty is submerged up to its nose.
It sounds like science fiction – but it isn’t. British and Swiss scientists consider the scenario a very real possibility, and experts have even alerted the British Science Minister to make contingency plans in case the cataclysm hits La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the West African coast.
Rock formations in the sea bottom off the Canary island of Tenerife suggest that a huge landslide occurred there hundreds of thousands of years ago, creating a gigantic wave which wreaked havoc on several continents, the daily El Mundo reported.
Today, a similar cataclysm could happen on La Palma northwest of Tenerife, according to scientists whose views were first aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The island of 80,000 residents is 2,426 metres high at its most elevated point, but only around 700 square kilometres large. Successive volcanic eruptions have formed volcanic vents at high elevations, creating a precarious geological structure.
La Palma’s Cumbre Vieja volcano has erupted seven times in five centuries, most recently in 1949 and 1971. One more massive eruption or several smaller ones could weaken the volcano’s western flank and lead to its collapse, British volcano expert Simon Day believes.
Half a trillion tonnes of rock would plunge into the ocean, according to Swiss experts who have modelled the landslide.
The rockfall would trigger a so-called mega-tsunami or giant wave 650 metres high which would zoom across the Atlantic at up to 720 kilometres an hour, scientists predict.
On reaching the United States, the wave would have diminished but would still be up to 50 metres high and would create havoc as much as 20 kilometres inland.
The biggest volcanic eruption so far, that on the Indonesian Krakatau island in 1883, only raised a 36-metre wave. But even then, more than 36,000 people drowned, the thundering sound could be heard as far as Australia and Madagascar and sunlight could not penetrate the curtain of smoke and ashes for 48 hours, according to figures quoted in press reports.
The Cumbre Vieja should be under constant supervision and evacuation plans should already be in the making, Day told El Mundo. Experts at University College of London have contacted British science minister Lord Sainsbury to warn him of the possible catastrophe, the BBC reported.
In Spain, the warnings have met with anger from tourism officials who fear that travellers will begin cancelling holidays on La Palma.
The idea that the island could collapse is “an idiocy without foundation”, concurred Canaries geology expert Telesforo Bravo, joking that he would buy a surfing board to mount the giant wave.
Such cataclysms “only occur once in millions of years”, geologist Juan Carlos Carracedo added. “Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of mankind.”
Some British scientists have also criticized the predictions as exaggerated, arguing that the landslide would not be as large as suggested.
Yet another Spanish expert, who did not want his name published, retorted that the theory was mainly being lambasted by Spanish “politicians and old scientists who are set in their ways of thinking”.
It was a shame that the discovery had been made by foreigners, he added, lamenting what he regarded as Spain’s lack of interest in investigating the geology of the Canary Islands.
Even if the volcano could theoretically erupt any time, Day does not consider it likely before the next century, and other experts speak of a timespan of thousands of years.
“It will not happen tomorrow and probably not next year,” Day said. “But it will happen.”
