MEGA TSUNAMIS

It was only a matter of time when Donald Trump clamped down on California, the state he most hates.

• That ICE issue with immigrants is only a secondary matter.  He was waiting for any kind of protest to show this Democratic state who is the real boss.
• What he did in activating the National Guard and calling in the Marines without the involvement of Governor Gavin Newsom has happened in the past.
• Trump is out to embarrass Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to tarnish their image.

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  Most fearfully, he is merely testing out how he can refine his quest to become dictator.
• Can't the courts check him?  They have no enforcement capability.  Trump controls the Department Defense, Department of Justice and the National Guard.
• Even Time magazine agrees with me.

Oh well, the worse is yet to come.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I reach back to Chapter 6 of my book, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth, titled, Blackout:  Six Hours to Seattle.  I summarized this chapter through 9 postings in September of 2008, in reverse chronological order.

• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE (Part 1)
• A 1720 FOOT WAVE (Part 2)
• HISTORIC MEGA EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS (Part 3)
• SO WHERE WILL THOSE MEGA TSUNAMIS COME FROM? (Part 4)
• THE SCIENCE AND CONTROVERSIES OF MEGA TSUNAMIS (Part 5)
• THE HAWAII CHALLENGE TO LA PALMA (Part 6)
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE (Part 7)
• SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO SEATTLE? (Part 8)
• THE SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE BLACKOUT (Part 9)

Note that Part 6 is the island of La Palma.  Last week I noticed that there was a movie on Netflix titled, La Palma.  Looked at Rotten Tomatoes and that their reviewers gave this film a 100 rating, while the audience said 29.  How can the discrepancy be so significant?  As I remain in the hold mode in writing a book about Six Hours to Seattle, I watched the flick, and myself gave it a 50 rating.  The concept seemed mostly okay, but some of the technical details were weak, and the ending had too much of a Hollywood feel.

During the summer of 2018, I went to Seattle to seek details I could use in writing a book, Six Hours to Seattle.  Here were the postings, also in reverse chronological order.

• FIVE HOURS TO LOS ANGELES?
• ALASKA: Earthquakes, Auroras and Cabbages
• THE BEST OF ANCHORAGE
• NOT DOING MUCH IN ANCHORAGE
• SIX HOURS TO ANCHORAGE: The Longest Night?
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Space Needle and Chihuly Gl...
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Victoria
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Seattle is Hot
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Life on the Waterfront
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Hilo and Seattle Okay
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: The Journey Begins
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: The Speculative Science
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Mega Tsunamis
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Hint of What is to Come

To explain:

• If part of the Big Island of Hawaii fell into the sea (as did La Palma in the film) there is potential for a mega tsunami.  
• A commercial flight leaving Kona or Hilo would take about six hours to reach Seattle, and so would this mega tsunami.
• Thus, the book would largely take place in the plane, and how the passengers, seeing this giant Big Island landslide, would react while they headed for Seattle.  One problem was that they wouldn't be able to land in Seattle.

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  However, after visiting Seattle, I came to a conclusion that a mega tsunami from Hawaii would not much affect that city.  See how protected it is.  On this journey, I also spent some time in Anchorage, Alaska, for this same mega tsunami would also head in that direction.  This city, too, is conformed such that it would be largely protected.
• Thus that change of book title to Five Hours to Los Angeles.

So what is a mega tsunami?

• Most damaging tsunamis in the past occur when there is a major earthquake in the ocean.  What happens is that two adjacent earth plates readjust through tectonic activity, resulting in an earthquake, where there would be a rise or fall in the sea floor that displaces a large volume of water.  Not much is seen on the open ocean, but as land is reached, the wave height dramatically increases, perhaps as much as 100 feet, although most far-field tsunamis only reach an amplitude of 35 feet max.  There are usually two or three waves, and any one of them could be the largest.

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  In contrast, mega tsunamis occur when a large amount of land suddenly falls into the water through a landslide, meteor impact or volcanic eruption.  The initial wave could exceed 1000 feet, and there would only be one wave.

Examples of modern megatsunamis include the one associated with the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa (volcanic eruption), the 1958 Lituya Bay mega tsunami (a 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered a landslide which caused an initial wave of 524.6 metres (1,721 ft)), and the 1963 Vajont Dam landslide (caused by human activity destabilizing sides of valley). Prehistoric examples include the Storegga Slide (landslide), and the Chicxulub, Chesapeake Bay, and Eltanin meteor impacts.

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  Hawaii, in particular, has had numerous landslides that have caused mega tsunamis.  Perhaps 70 or so throughout time, with 17 major ones.  The most spectacular is the Nuuanu Landslide, which occurred 1.5 million years ago, where part of Oahu fell into ocean, no doubt causing a mega tsunami heading toward the Aleutians and North America.  Watch this video.  Google AI Overview:  waves as high as 1640 feet were generated.  I at this point like to say that I live on Nuuanu Avenue on Oahu.

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  105,000 years ago, a collapsed Hawaii island volcano caused a 1000 feet high mega tsunami on Lanai.
• In 1958, Lituya Bay experienced a mega tsunami up to 1721 feet.
• So the film, La Palma, drew my interest because:

One of the most discussed scenarios involves the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma. A study from 2001 by Dr. Simon Day and Steven Ward warned that a collapse of the volcano’s west flank could send up to 120 cubic miles of rock into the Atlantic Ocean. This event could produce a mega-tsunami starting 2,000 feet high near the volcano and still towering 150 feet upon reaching the Americas. This scenario was dramatized in the Netflix series La Palma, depicting the risk to US East Coast communities.

But are mega tsunamis just another over-the-top exaggeration?  Something that happens, maybe every 100,000 years, or millions of years?  Well, watch this video about the Greenland mega tsunami involving a landslide that triggered a 656 feet high wave.  This event occured on 16September 2023!!!

However, how many of you live near the ocean.  They say that 15% of the global population lives within a few miles of a coastline.  However, how far-in will a mega tsunami get?  In Florida, look to the left.  But in general, most of you are very safe from even a mega tsunami.  

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  That 2023 Greenland mega tsunami of 656 feet?  There were no fatalities.
• The 1958 Lituya Bay mega tsunami of 1721 feet?  Five deaths.
• I would worry more about a standard tsunami.  The Great Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 killed more than 220,000, but the maximum wave height was "only" 100 feet.  To qualify for a mega tsunami, it has to be several hundred feet to thousands of feet tall.

About Hurricane Barbara in the East Pacific?  Has already weakened into a tropical storm, and is now headed for Mexico.  But there is now Tropical Storm Cosme.  It too is now actually weakening and veering towards Baha.

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