Feb 5, 6:40 AM EST
By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press Writer
9 U.S. Towns Ready for Atlantic Tsunami
MIDWAY, Ga. (AP) -- Standing outside his home 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean, John T. Woods III has a hard time imagining it - a towering tidal wave one day crashing over the dock where a lone fisherman recently cast his line.
Yet emergency managers here in Liberty County soon plan to post a warning sign near Woods' house depicting a stick man running uphill from a monstrous wave and declaring the surrounding area a "Tsunami Hazard Zone."
The closest thing that Woods, a lifelong Georgia coast resident, has been to a natural disaster was Hurricane David, a Category 2 storm that caused no devastation in 1979. Tsunamis, he says, "have never been a factor."
"I really think it's a waste of time," said the 47-year-old shrimper. "But you never know."
While tsunamis are primarily considered a threat on the Pacific Coast, emergency officials are paying closer attention to the potential for killer waves on the Atlantic Coast since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries...cont'd
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EAST_COAST_TSUNAMI?SITE=COCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-02-05-06-40-23_________________________________________________________________
Mega-tsunami to devastate US coastline
A tsunami wave higher than any in recorded history threatens to ravage the US coastline in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands, UK and US scientists will report today. Locations on both African and European Atlantic coastlines - including Britain - are also thought to be at risk.
The new research, a collaboration between Dr. Simon Day of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at UCL and Dr. Steven Ward of the University of California, reveals the extent and size of the mega-tsunami, the consequence of a giant landslide that may be triggered by a future eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Previous research by Simon Day and colleagues predicted that a future eruption would be likely to cause a landslide on the western flank of Cumbre Vieja. A block of rock approximately twice the volume of the Isle of Man would break off, travelling into the sea at a speed of up to 350 kilometres per hour. The disintegration of the rock, this earlier study predicted, would produce a debris avalanche deposit extending 60 kilometres from the island. The energy released by the collapse would be equal to the electricity consumption of the entire United States in half a year.
The new model - which provides further insights into the consequences of the collapse - predicts that the landslide would create an exceptionally large tsunami with the capability to travel great distances and reaching speeds of up to 800 kilometres per hour. Immediately after Cumbre Vieja's collapse a dome of water 900 metres high and tens of kilometres wide will form only to collapse and rebound. As the landslide continues to move underwater a series of wave crests and troughs are produced which soon develop into a tsumani 'wave train' which fuels the waves progress. After only 10 minutes, the model predicts, the tsunami will have moved a distance of almost 250 kilometres.
cont'd
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-08/ucl-mtd082301.phpFurther documentation:
http://www.swvrc.org/lapalma.doc