Is There Really a Mega-tsunami Coming to Wash Us Away?
Over the weekend, I saw a ton of posts about this mega-tsunami that was apparently going to head to the east coast and then flood out all of the Gulf Coast and wash us away as far north as Alexandria. Obviously seeing this piqued my interest, so I decided to do some couch-style investigating.
The back-story for those with A.D.D. is that there is a volcano erupting on the Canary Islands. The islands are over by Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. The volcano eruption has forced over 5,000 people to evacuate from their villages in the area. As it began to erupt, surrounding areas were placed on alert due to the volatile situation from the volcano. The last time this volcano, the Cumbre Vieja Volcano, erupted was back in 1971. Since then, it has been quiet. The eruption of the volcano is believed to have been caused by some small earthquakes and a volcanic tremor was recorded around the Canary Islands according to their government. During all of this research, I learned that we have a National Tsunami Warning Center!
I will say that some followers of that page have also noted that some of the buoys the center uses are showing that they are not currently working on their website. This could just be a website issue, but either way that part is a little sketchy.
So why the sudden panic of a mega-tsunami? It seems to be getting confused with some research that was done back in 2001. That research was saying that an area around the volcano could come free and drop a ton of rock into the sea. That amount of debris landing in the ocean could then lead to a tsunami. After that study was released, it was quickly dismissed by additional research saying that a mega-tsunami stemming from such a failure was impossible.
Is such a catastrophe possible? Maybe. Will it happen as a result of this volcano erruption? Research says it is extremely unlikely in this scenario. Perhaps with everything going on in the world, we are just steadily looking for the next worst thing to happen. Then, using social media as our source, just makes it even worse as it continues to get shared with sayings of he said she said as it begins to grow. Let's all take a breath from this natural disaster, we don't need to worry about a mega-tsunami, nor is it signaling the end of the world. Matthew 24:36.
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