TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe!

Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe!

Marcus Didius Falco (falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk)
Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:21:14 -0500

Alan Burkitt-Gray <alan@burkitt-gray.com> wrote on Sat, 1 Jan 2005
18:28:03:

> Marcus Didius Falco <falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: "At a
> guess, a 20 foot wave would sweep most coastal cities in the eastern
> US. Luckily, most of the Atlantic is not seismically active."

> Yes, but it's not just earthquakes you have to worry about. There is a
> large chunk of land on Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, in
> mid-Atlantic, which is liable to plunge into the Atlantic if the
> volcano on the island erupts.

> "Scientists have estimated that the wave from the collapse of Las
> Palmas will be over 650 metres high and its 'crest' will stretch from
> 30 to 40 kilometres from front to rear, or more. The huge wall of
> water will annihilate every single coastline city on the Eastern Shore
> of the United States and could cause similar destruction for up to 20
> miles or more inland. The Bahamas will be devastated and Florida could
> be submerged." - from http://www.newsmedianews.com/tsunami.htm

> Sorry to be gloomy.

I'd like to see some careful modelling. Waves break when they hit "shallow"
water, shallow being a function of the height of the wave. Thus, the Grand
Banks, Georges Bank, and so forth, which are only about 120 feet deep,
would likely cause the wave to break for the first time miles offshore. The
barrier islands that characterize the east coast (Hatteras, the Delmarva
peninsula, etc) would break the wave a second time. Thus, it's quite
possible that Cape Cod would be swept but Boston survive. Similarly,
Brooklyn and Sandy Hook NJ might be swept, but Manhattan survive.

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