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You may recall our discussion on the Ezekiel 36 thread about La Palma in the Canary Islands. I just found this little news clip about hurricane delta- who knows how close we all came to major catastrophe on the east coast. Personally I think it will be the Ezekiel 38 earthquake that will cause La Palma collapse (ie the "mountainside will fall" according to Ezekiel). HSB
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchiv...ory=tp5de5.htm
12/01/05
Bob Bowden column
Be thankful the volcano stayed calm
We may never know if we came close to Armageddon this Tuesday.
The world's leading expert didn't return my phone calls.
But I know I came out of my chair Monday when I read the National Hurricane Center's advisory on Tropical Storm Delta. The storm, it said, would pass near La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Not La Palma!
La Palma is a beautiful island, a popular tourist destination for Europeans seeking an escape from cold weather. It's the westernmost island in a chain as close to Africa as Cuba is to South Florida.
La Palma was formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. It's the steepest of the Canaries and home to 78,198 residents.
It is also home to Cumbre Vieja.
Cumbre Vieja (Old Summit) is a volcano that rises above the village of Puntagorda. The volcano towers 7,957 feet. Geological evidence tells us Cumbre Vieja has erupted seven times between 1470 and 1971. But it was an eruption in 1949 that began what could be a future catastrophe of Biblical proportions.
During the 1949 eruption, the volcano cracked. The western half -- the section facing us -- dropped 12 feet. It's hanging on by an unseen thread today.
In accounts told on the BBC, The Discovery Channel, CNN and news services, Drs. Steven Ward and Simon Day studied the volcano and applied computer programs that predict a future eruption will drop a 500 billion ton chunk of rock into Atlantic waters.
Imagine a rock only slightly smaller than Lake Okeechobee.
The initial splash will soar more than 3,000 feet high -- twice the length of a drag strip, Ward says. Then the splash will form a "mega-tsunami" and ripple across the Atlantic faster than a jetliner.
The east coast of Florida and the United States will be nine hours away.
Ward has posted computer-generated, animated simulations of what will follow the Cumbre Vieja collapse: http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~ward/movies_landtsu_index.htm. One map shows waves 160 feet high striking the Florida east coast.
That's five feet higher than the Sunshine Skyway.
Mountains of debris would be pushed 12 to 20 miles inland, the scientists say. All east coast cities would be obliterated. Fifty million people would die. It's almost inconceivable.
The fear Monday was that Delta's rains might trigger an eruption. If the volcano burped a hot bubble of lava, water trapped in crevices would heat to steam and the steam pressure would create cracking, the scientists say.
But heavy rains never came. The rainfall total for La Palma's Puntagorda this Tuesday was not much greater than the rain on our Punta Gorda as a cold front approached.
Cumbre Vieja didn't even hiss as Delta passed many miles to its north.
Quietly, it waits.
and here:
http://www.tenerifenews.com/cms/fron...t=8&idart=2894
Under the volcano
Cumbre Vieja comes under more scrutiny - Cumbre Vieja is a name to strike unease – if not downright panic – into many an avid news follower, TV documentary fan or internet geek. Indeed, a quick Google search shows the degree of interest in the La Palma volcano with 397,000 sites at the last count.
As almost everyone must know by now, the theory is that Cumbre Vieja could, if it erupted, send a 500 billion ton chunk of rock sliding down into the sea. This so-called lateral collapse would send out a mega-tsunami to end all tsunamis which would wreak havoc in the USA’s east coast.
It was back in the last La Palma eruption, in 1949, that the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge slipped several metres downwards into the sea. At the same time a two kilometre long fracture opened, easily visible to this day, perhaps caused by the pressure from the rising magma heating and vaporizing water trapped within the island’s structure.
Although the Canary authorities are anxious to do all in their power to play the catastrophe scenario down, claiming such a slide is hypothetical and could take place a thousand or more years hence, in reality they are quietly beavering away behind the scenes, stepping up the vigilance on the mighty Cumbre Vieja.
Perhaps the seriousness with which they regard the situation can be judged by two of the latest monitoring schemes to be implemented in the area, financed by La Palma’s Cabildo, which have been tellingly dubbed Alerta I and Alerta II.
The vigilance initiative includes the permanent location of three geochemical instrument stations in Amargavinos, on the north-west flank of Birigoyo and in Fuencaliente. An additional one is planned for Teneguia.
In the coming weeks and months two further hi-tech gadgets will be installed, described as hydrochemical stations to keep checks on the temperature, pH content and flow of subterranean water.
All this, and more … in the shape of continued controls under a separate programme run by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER) on the Cumbre Vieja which includes periodic scientific fact-finding missions to measure levels of carbon dioxide emissions and temperatures.
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchiv...ory=tp5de5.htm
12/01/05
Bob Bowden column
Be thankful the volcano stayed calm
We may never know if we came close to Armageddon this Tuesday.
The world's leading expert didn't return my phone calls.
But I know I came out of my chair Monday when I read the National Hurricane Center's advisory on Tropical Storm Delta. The storm, it said, would pass near La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Not La Palma!
La Palma is a beautiful island, a popular tourist destination for Europeans seeking an escape from cold weather. It's the westernmost island in a chain as close to Africa as Cuba is to South Florida.
La Palma was formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. It's the steepest of the Canaries and home to 78,198 residents.
It is also home to Cumbre Vieja.
Cumbre Vieja (Old Summit) is a volcano that rises above the village of Puntagorda. The volcano towers 7,957 feet. Geological evidence tells us Cumbre Vieja has erupted seven times between 1470 and 1971. But it was an eruption in 1949 that began what could be a future catastrophe of Biblical proportions.
During the 1949 eruption, the volcano cracked. The western half -- the section facing us -- dropped 12 feet. It's hanging on by an unseen thread today.
In accounts told on the BBC, The Discovery Channel, CNN and news services, Drs. Steven Ward and Simon Day studied the volcano and applied computer programs that predict a future eruption will drop a 500 billion ton chunk of rock into Atlantic waters.
Imagine a rock only slightly smaller than Lake Okeechobee.
The initial splash will soar more than 3,000 feet high -- twice the length of a drag strip, Ward says. Then the splash will form a "mega-tsunami" and ripple across the Atlantic faster than a jetliner.
The east coast of Florida and the United States will be nine hours away.
Ward has posted computer-generated, animated simulations of what will follow the Cumbre Vieja collapse: http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~ward/movies_landtsu_index.htm. One map shows waves 160 feet high striking the Florida east coast.
That's five feet higher than the Sunshine Skyway.
Mountains of debris would be pushed 12 to 20 miles inland, the scientists say. All east coast cities would be obliterated. Fifty million people would die. It's almost inconceivable.
The fear Monday was that Delta's rains might trigger an eruption. If the volcano burped a hot bubble of lava, water trapped in crevices would heat to steam and the steam pressure would create cracking, the scientists say.
But heavy rains never came. The rainfall total for La Palma's Puntagorda this Tuesday was not much greater than the rain on our Punta Gorda as a cold front approached.
Cumbre Vieja didn't even hiss as Delta passed many miles to its north.
Quietly, it waits.
and here:
http://www.tenerifenews.com/cms/fron...t=8&idart=2894
Under the volcano
Cumbre Vieja comes under more scrutiny - Cumbre Vieja is a name to strike unease – if not downright panic – into many an avid news follower, TV documentary fan or internet geek. Indeed, a quick Google search shows the degree of interest in the La Palma volcano with 397,000 sites at the last count.
As almost everyone must know by now, the theory is that Cumbre Vieja could, if it erupted, send a 500 billion ton chunk of rock sliding down into the sea. This so-called lateral collapse would send out a mega-tsunami to end all tsunamis which would wreak havoc in the USA’s east coast.
It was back in the last La Palma eruption, in 1949, that the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge slipped several metres downwards into the sea. At the same time a two kilometre long fracture opened, easily visible to this day, perhaps caused by the pressure from the rising magma heating and vaporizing water trapped within the island’s structure.
Although the Canary authorities are anxious to do all in their power to play the catastrophe scenario down, claiming such a slide is hypothetical and could take place a thousand or more years hence, in reality they are quietly beavering away behind the scenes, stepping up the vigilance on the mighty Cumbre Vieja.
Perhaps the seriousness with which they regard the situation can be judged by two of the latest monitoring schemes to be implemented in the area, financed by La Palma’s Cabildo, which have been tellingly dubbed Alerta I and Alerta II.
The vigilance initiative includes the permanent location of three geochemical instrument stations in Amargavinos, on the north-west flank of Birigoyo and in Fuencaliente. An additional one is planned for Teneguia.
In the coming weeks and months two further hi-tech gadgets will be installed, described as hydrochemical stations to keep checks on the temperature, pH content and flow of subterranean water.
All this, and more … in the shape of continued controls under a separate programme run by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER) on the Cumbre Vieja which includes periodic scientific fact-finding missions to measure levels of carbon dioxide emissions and temperatures.
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