Cumbre
Vieja
USA ON TSUNAMI
ALERT!
What is a tsunami?
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 causes a Tsunami? 1. Undersea Earthquake
What causes Tsunami? 2. Landslide into the sea
A bit like...
Tsunami caused by
landslide
Label the diagram task.
How big can tsunamis get?
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.
Cumbre Vieja
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
Tsunami energy travelling
across the ocean.
Mapping task