Re: [Paddlewise] Tsunamis

> I think it is La Cumbre Vieha (spelling???) on La Palma.
> They are saying that it is only a question of when, not if.
> When the volcano splits the wave that makes landfall on the east coast 
> of the USA would be something like 300-500 meters high.
> 
> I don't think anyone can really see how bad that would be.
> I sure can't.

And you're not alone: the problem is that catastrophic geologic events
are rare on human timescales and thus largely outside our perception.
And so are the much slower/long-lived events that happen every day.

Consider "glacial rebound": small intermittment upward crust movements
that are still observed around here (North America) sporadically as
the crust returns to its "original" position -- now that the enormous
weight of the ice has been removed from it.

I'm vaguely accustomed to thinking about these kind of extra-experiential
events because of my background in physics: but concepts as diverse as
nanoseconds or 100 million years are still hard to wrap one's brain
around because they're just so utterly foreign.  I think it takes a genius
on the order of a Feynman or a Hawking or equivalent to truly comprehend
these sorts of things.

And that rules out just about all of us. ;-)

But a 300m-500m wave impacting the US east coast?  Yow.  I think you'd see
destruction as far inland as the Appalachians: everything on the coastal plain
would be gone.  It would probably be the largest catastrophe, in terms of
loss of human life, in recorded history.

Heck, might as well jump in the boat and try to surf it: no point in running. ;-)

---Rsk
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