Tidal wave catastrophe looms

WORLD leaders were yesterday urged to wake up to the threat from a collapsing mountain which at any moment could unleash a massive tidal wave on the east coast of North America.

A chunk of a volcano in the Canary Islands the size of the Isle of Man is on the brink of falling into the sea, a leading expert warned.

Scientists think it could break away when the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma next erupts.

If that happened, a giant tsunami up to 500 feet high would be sent racing across the Atlantic at the speed of a passenger jet. About nine hours later it would hit the Caribbean islands and the east coast of Canada and the United States.

After travelling 4,000 miles the wave would be lower and wider, but still between 60 and 160-ft high. Stretching for many miles, it would sweep up to 20 miles inland, destroying everything in its path. Boston, New York, Washington DC and Miami would be virtually wiped off the map and tens of millions of people killed.

Professor Bill McGuire, of the Benfield Grieg Hazard Research Centre at London’s University College, said yesterday close monitoring might at best provide two weeks’ warning of the impending disaster.

"What we need now is an integrated volcanic monitoring set-up to give maximum warning of a coming eruption," Prof McGuire said.

"The US government must be aware of the La Palma threat. They should certainly be worried, and so should the island states in the Caribbean that will really bear the brunt of a collapse."

A monitoring station equipped to look deep into the heart of the mountain and spot the early signs of an eruption might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Prof McGuire said.

Speaking at a briefing in London, he said the next eruption could literally split the mountain apart. Cumbre Vieja last erupted in 1949.

Any evacuation plan would have to be based on the forecast of an eruption, since once the collapse happened it would be too late. The wave-front would spread out in a crescent, striking the west African coast within hours with a wall of water more than 300ft high. Its northern side would send a 33ft-high wave smashing into the south coast of England.

Unlike a normal wave, the tsunami would not break rapidly but just keep coming, Prof McGuire said. "You’re not talking about the destruction of the UK economy, but very serious damage along the south coast," he said.