La Palma is the largest of the Canary Islands, a territory of Spain located 700 miles off the west coast of Africa. It is a dormant volcano. In 1949 during its last eruption, a huge slab weighing an estimated 500 billion tons sheared loose, slid down a few feet towards the Atlantic Ocean below, and stopped. Today it hangs there precariously, effectively an arrow on a drawn-back bow aimed at the heart of America. A small nuclear detonation in just the right place could set it loose to slide the rest of the way into the Atlantic, with disastrous consequences. As noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation, “What will happen when the volcano on La Palma collapses? Scientists predict that it will generate a wave that will be almost inconceivably destructive, far bigger than anything ever witnessed in modern times. It will surge across the entire Atlantic in a matter of hours, engulfing the whole US east coast, sweeping away everything in its path up to 20km inland. Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then all the way down the coast to Miami and the Caribbean.”
Can’t happen in America? On a much smaller scale, it already has and you can view the aftermath from a cruise ship. In 1958, a massive landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska caused a splash that rose over 1700 feet high and a 100 foot high tsunami that inundated over five square miles. Similar events have happened in Hawaii.
In many ways, the British are more aware of the Canary Island mega-tsunami threat to America than the Americans are, and not just because they run an astronomical observatory there. British scientists from the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, most notably Dr. Simon Day, have researched the geology of La Palma for several years now and have issued numerous warnings in the form of press releases as well as more traditional technical research papers. In Britain these calls for action have resulted in attention from the the UK insurance industry. In America, the threat is virtually unknown.
Before 9/11, a terrorist-triggered mega-tsunami attack on the US could happen only in the pages of science fiction novels such as Icefire. No more. If there are Al-Qaeda terrorist cells in Buffalo, New York, why not on La Palma in Spain?