Cumbre Vieja - Westfield State University

La Palma/Palm Island
Cumbre Vieja
(mega-tsunami)
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dun dun duhhhh
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Felipe
Vazquez
Cumbre Vieja/“Old Summit”
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Within the last 100
years the Cumbre
Vieja volcano has
erupted twice; 1949
& 1971.
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Now pay attention. The most common
Lituya Bay Tsunami best illustrates
what a MEGA-TSUNAMI can do:
and then there is an eventual and
inevitable rupture, it releases a huge
amount of energy, thus displacing the
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ocean water causing a tsunami.
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However, a tsunami is limited to the
extent of its thrust. For example, the
2004 Sundra Megathrust was 10 meters,
so the highest the tsunami could reach,
was 10 meters...this isn't the same story
with their big friend the MEGA-
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Movement along the fault caused the
sediment and glacier walls to weaken
releasing 30.6 million cubic meters of
dirt and glacial debris.
Crashing into the bay it generated a 500
meter wave moving inland to about 1/2
“Err right...I was just getting to that.”
In 1949, Cumbre Vieja maintained its
unusual event took place...
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of the plate down with it. Friction builds
“What about the Lituya Bay Tsunami in
1958, sonny?”
posed no threat to the islanders, however an
tsunami is caused by a rupture of a
another plate, this plate drags the edge
The island was formed over 3 to 4
million years ago from a seamount. It
continues to be the most volcanically
active of all the islands, with its most
current eruption in 1971 on the
southern tip of Cumbre Vieja.
Thousands of years ago many volcanic islands
like the Canary Islands have experienced
vertical collapses that generated MEGATSUNAMI's! This is proven by the remnants
that lie at the base of the islands as evidence,
but there hasn't been a vertical collapse to
devastate the modern man, so no need to worry
yourselves.
consistent characteristics of erupting and
7.9-8.3 Magnitude
plate that is subducting underneath
It was formed by a hot spot that is
being moved along by the slow moving
African Plate.
1941 Eruption
Tsunami vs. MEGA-TSUNAMI!
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The Canary Islands are autonomous to
Spain and they are located just off the
coast of Western Sahara & Morocco.
Old Landslides
Cumbre Vieja is a
ridge volcano, rather
than its older
counterpart to the
north, which is a
shield volcano.
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La Palma is one of the chain islands
belonging to the archipelago Canaries.
A week after the eruption a series of
earthquakes occurred, the west side
of the volcano slide downwards and
towards the ocean by approximately
4 meters, a fissure opened up about
3 miles from the southern tip of the
volcano. This was not like an
ordinary volcanic vent that simply
opens horizontally and then you get
lava erupting outwards,
extraordinarily the western side had
just moved by sheer force! Or so it
seemed...
The Slideee
So what's the big fuss?
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Well I'll tell ya kids, this old timer is worried because:
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A 2 kilometer fissure opened up along the southern tip of Cumbre Vieja
and then slid its western flank an extraordinary 4 METERS! What the real
question should be;
What's happening in the interior of Cumbre Vieja to cause
such a phenomenon?
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The conservative vertical
collapse is projected to
be 15 to 25 kilometers
off Cumbre Vieja's
western flank.
DYKES
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- HEAT
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½ a trillion tons of rock
debris.
Expanding Heated Water
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Projected to displace the
rock 5 to 10 km off its
coast
Bibliography
The
Chaos
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Steven N. Ward Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz California, USA
Simon Day Benfield Greig Hazard Research Center, Department of Geological Sciences, University
College,
London, UK. Cumbre Vieja Volcano -- Potential collapse and tsunami at La Palma,
Canary Islands
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 60 ( 1994 ) 225-241. The Canary Islands: an example of
structural
control on the growth of large oceanic-island volcanoes J.C. Carracedo Volcanological
Station of the Canary
Islands, Spanish Research Council (CSIC), P.O. Box 195, 38206 La Laguna,
Spain(Received August 16, 1993;
revised version accepted December 16, 1993 )
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Mega-tsunami returns September 01, 2004.
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Mega-tsunami: Wave of Destruction BBC 9:30pm Thursday 12th October 2000.
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http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv_JhYnzKqM&feature=related
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv_JhYnzKqM&feature=related
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http://www.iberianature.com/material/megatsunami.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami_transcript.shtml