"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 3/1/05 11:30, in article ,
"Cerumen"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 16:09:33 -0000, "Bob Hobden"

wrote:

The main risk is the big piece of rock which is expected to
fall
off
an island in the Canaries, generate a tidal wave that will
wipe
out
the East Coats of the USA and not do a lot of good to the low
countries.

Apparently a tsunami hit the west coast of Ireland in 1775 ?
after
a
seismic event near the Azores and Canaries causing some
considerable
damage..

A recent article I read somewhere said that if the predicted bit
of
La Palma
falls off in one slab the resulting tsunami will lead to the
disappearance
of the Isles of Scilly (among other damage!)

As well as New York

Franz

Lots of people have said that, but it seems unlikely.

I am afraid that if the whole chunk og rock comes adrift in one go, it
is a dead cert. It is only a matter of when.

To create a tsunami
requires a high energy shock wave,

No. That is not so. Any large, localised disturbance will do the
trick.

a bit of land falling in would, however
large not be moving fast enough for the damage to be transmitted any
distance, although there would certainly be a large wave locally
much as
when large icebergs break off.

I would rather listen to the physicists who have done the
calculations. They actually do know the magnitude of the wave which
would occur if the whole cracked chunk of rock fell into the ocean in
one go.
In a deep ocean with a flat bottom, a tsunami is actually a relatively
slow, stately occurrence. All hell begins to break loose when it
reaches a sloping shoreline.

Franz