A
FUTURE EVENT?
Cumbre Vieja, Spanish for "Old Summit,” is a volcano on the island
of La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands off northwestern Africa.
After a 1949 eruption, the volcano split apart along a crack and a vast
chunk of the western flank of "Old Summit" broke loose from the rest
of the volcano and lurched several feet toward the ocean before stopping.
A new major eruption would dislodge this mass, sending billions of tons
of rock (a hundred-cubic-mile chunk) at 200 miles an hour into the water and
launching tsunamis across the Atlantic Ocean.
North Africa near the islands could be inundated with waves hundreds of
feet high. Parts of Europe, the East Coast of the U.S., Caribbean and
northeastern South America could receive tsunamis 80 to 100 feet high.
A geophysicist has noted that the slide "is pretty ripe." and
is about 95% ready to let loose.
A minor eruption occurred in 1971.
Is there a major eruption in the near future?
Nobody knows for sure. What is known, however, that such an event would submerge most of America's east coast.