La Palma earthquakes and volcanic activity

[anonymous-user]

Not sure if there’s a thread on it but initially there was a week long build up of seismic activity and then on Sunday there’s been volcanic activity leading to evacuations.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/people-evacua...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/sep/2...

Video

https://youtu.be/_SmlKpBWIy0

La palma also famous for the disaster scenario where a mega tsunami caused by island collapse could lead to all sorts of nastiness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vieja_tsunami...

Do any experts (or people who know much about it) know if this kind of collapse is a possible outcome from recent events or isn’t this likely to happen?

[isaldiri]

To be honest if it's going to happen, there's nothing anyone realistically is going to be able to do about it. Probably not dissimilar to a asteroid strike. Extremely rare event (one hopes anyway) with catastrophic consequences that we typically just ignore as it would be nearly impossible to adequately (esp in terms of cost over an extended period) prepare for.

La Palma is a lovely place though, been there a few times, would be a little gutted if half the island dropped into the Atlantic......

[Einion Yrth]

isaldiri said:

To be honest if it's going to happen, there's nothing anyone realistically is going to be able to do about it. Probably not dissimilar to a asteroid strike. Extremely rare event (one hopes anyway) with catastrophic consequences that we typically just ignore as it would be nearly impossible to adequately (esp in terms of cost over an extended period) prepare for.

La Palma is a lovely place though, been there a few times, would be a little gutted if half the island dropped into the Atlantic......

Well unique, I'd have thought, since it involves half of the island sliding into the sea.

[APontus]

For sts and giggles I follow this guy on Twitter; https://twitter.com/mxdondevivo?s=20

He's convinced the earth's plates are jamming up and we're heading towards a mega earthquake.

[moles]

I’m in Wellington NZ and have been thinking the same for the last few months that it’s been unusually quiet on the earthquake front. We used to get small tremors multiple times a week that you could feel in the night and we’ve had nothing for months.

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo]

“Hephaestus has stated that wiping out the Eastern seaboard was a tragic mistake. At the time there were 60 pieces of intelligence suggesting an attack on Olympus was imminent.”

[gotoPzero]

moles said:

I’m in Wellington NZ and have been thinking the same for the last few months that it’s been unusually quiet on the earthquake front. We used to get small tremors multiple times a week that you could feel in the night and we’ve had nothing for months.

I am signed up to the USGS earthquake alert system for anything >6.0 and its been very quiet the last 18 months I have only had a hand full of alerts.

[dukeboy749r]

Let's hope that earthquake researcher is profoundly wrong, but if one half of La Palma does slide into the sea, dependant on which half, a tsunami on the eastern seaboard of the US must be a major consideration.

Sheesh, that would be bloody scary, given the population density, infrastructure, etc.

[2fast748]

Was reading an interesting thread on twitter yesterday about this. Apparently the landslide induced mega tsunami wiping out the eastern seaboard of the US is now considered to be science fiction. It's the local who should be more concerned.

[gotoPzero]

2fast748 said:

Was reading an interesting thread on twitter yesterday about this. Apparently the landslide induced mega tsunami wiping out the eastern seaboard of the US is now considered to be science fiction. It's the local who should be more concerned.

If the whole thing was to go then I would not want to be on any Atlantic coast line less than 20m above sea level!

[dukeboy749r]

Hopefully so.

[SeeFive]

Got my speedos on here and an ironing board at the ready to surf it. Right on the south coast, less than a metre away from the wet stuff.

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo]

SeeFive said:

Got my speedos on here and an ironing board at the ready to surf it. Right on the south coast, less than a metre away from the wet stuff.

You just know that someone will do it

[Jimmm]

Looking at Google Earth it's amazing to think an island of that size can cause a Tsunami that can affect Western Europe, Africa and the East Coast of the USA. In my head it's like chucking a pebble in a reservoir. Obviously I understand that the physics behind it are far more complicated than that!

[Square Leg]

APontus said:

For sts and giggles I follow this guy on Twitter; https://twitter.com/mxdondevivo?s=20

He's convinced the earth's plates are jamming up and we're heading towards a mega earthquake.

Doesn’t look great for the Philippines..

[Earthdweller]

I’ve stood on the edge of the crater on La Palma it really is an impressive thing

I stayed in a hotel at the base of it on the south west corner of the island

I remember thinking at the time I wouldn’t want to be on the island if it blew but they were adamant they’d get months of notice if it was going to blow

Nature is amazing really and we are powerless to affect it

[anonymous-user]

Jimmm said:

Looking at Google Earth it's amazing to think an island of that size can cause a Tsunami that can affect Western Europe, Africa and the East Coast of the USA. In my head it's like chucking a pebble in a reservoir. Obviously I understand that the physics behind it are far more complicated than that!

I think it’s more like pouring a load of small pebbles down one side at suddenly displacing one big area of water.

Although a mega tsunami here seems highly unlikely, it’s Interesting and horrific reading about other events wher tsunamis or huge waves have been caused by landslides even inland from reservoirs and dams.

I hadn’t even heard about this one in Italy until the Wiki link in my OP led me to read about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam?wprov=sft...

[Earthdweller]

Square Leg said:

APontus said:

For sts and giggles I follow this guy on Twitter; https://twitter.com/mxdondevivo?s=20

He's convinced the earth's plates are jamming up and we're heading towards a mega earthquake.

Doesn’t look great for the Philippines..

Blimey he’s a positive chap not full of woe and doom at all

[jdw100]

moles said:

I’m in Wellington NZ and have been thinking the same for the last few months that it’s been unusually quiet on the earthquake front. We used to get small tremors multiple times a week that you could feel in the night and we’ve had nothing for months.

Funnily enough I was thinking recently we haven’t had one for a while.

That night we got one!

Over by the time I had jumped out of bed. Not very strong either.

I use the pool to judge severity, if it causes waves it was a decent one.

Even our local volcano has calmed down, its a good 70km away so not too concerned anyway.

[SpudLink]

Jimmm said:

Looking at Google Earth it's amazing to think an island of that size can cause a Tsunami that can affect Western Europe, Africa and the East Coast of the USA. In my head it's like chucking a pebble in a reservoir. Obviously I understand that the physics behind it are far more complicated than that!

It’s not chucking a rock into the water. It would be part of the ocean floor suddenly changing shape.