Science & Technology

Volcanic collapse created 800ft tidal wave

By T.K. Randall
October 4, 2015 ·  11 comments

The volcano could be on the verge of another collapse. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Pascal Givry 73,000 years ago a large volcano on the Cape Verdean island of Fogo suddenly collapsed, producing a huge wave several hundred meters high that decimated nearby islands.

Since then however the volcano has been gradually growing back to its original size and now scientists are concerned that something similar could be on the verge of happening again.

The enormous wave was produced by what is known as a 'flank collapse' which occurs when the volcano's slopes collapse in to the ocean like a gigantic landslide.

"Our point is that flank collapses can happen extremely fast and catastrophically, and therefore are capable of triggering giant tsunamis," said scientist Dr Ricardo Ramalho."They probably don't happen very often. But we need to take this into account when we think about the hazard potential of these kinds of volcanic features."

Right now the volcano on Fogo has risen to 2,743 metres above sea level - enough to create a similar disaster if another flank collapse were to occur again in the present day.

The last time this happened the resulting tidal wave was more than six times the height of the devastating tsunamis that hit India's coast in 2004 and eastern Japan back in 2011.

Tsunami expert Prof Bill McGuire believes that this event occurs once every 10,000 years.

"The scale of such events, as the Fogo study testifies, and their potentially devastating impact, makes them a clear and serious hazard in ocean basins that host active volcanoes," he said.

Source: The Guardian | Comments (11)

Tags: Tidal Wave, Volcano