By Stephen McKinley
smckinley@irishecho.com

Freak waves like those which wrecked Asian coastlines last week could
one day strike Atlantic coastlines, wiping out cities like New York

the eastern seaboard, and pounding the Irish coastline mercilessly.

stuff of a fantasy-filled Hollywood disaster script? Not at all, says
Professor Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Hazard Research

at University College London, and author of "A Guide to the End of

World."
McGuire, whose career as a geologist has led him to study some of the
greatest natural cataclysms from history while pondering what

lie in wait for humanity in the near and distant future, has been
warning of an Atlantic Ocean tsunami for years.

It is likely to be set off by the collapse of a Canary Islands

into the sea.

When it occurs, McGuire says the enormous chunk of volcanic rock --
about the size of the Isle of Man -- will generate a tsunami likely

crest at 50 meters high, which will sweep across the Atlantic and

the Caribbean and U.S. coastline.

Other experts in the natural disaster field of study have poured cold
water on McGuire's theory, which he admits is a worse-case scenario.

he is adamant that governments should prepare for such disasters,
thankfully rare though they may be, and he says these threats are far
more deadly when they do occur than anything any terror group can

up with.

"If you're planning for any future disaster, you're not going to
consider the least disastrous scenario, you're going to consider the
most," McGuire told reporters last week, responding to the events in
Asia.

Geologists have found boulders from the Canary Islands 20 meters

the current sea line in the Bahamas. This is clear indication for
McGuire that catastrophic tsunamis have occurred in the past.

On the Canary Island of El Hierro, a semi-circular escarpment of rock
left behind after a landslide is covered in melted rock. McGuire

that a landslide here in the past "moved so quickly that it heated

rock through friction and melted it. That is a catastrophic event."

It is an event that geologists have termed a Global Geophysical Event

"Gee Gee," by nickname. Other similar catastrophes include an

strike to the planet. While earthquakes, floods and volcanic

are relatively common -- they can occur several times a year around

world -- a Gee Gee is rarer but on such a scale that the entire

may be affected.

Yet McGuire and other experts point to progress being made in

potential asteroid strikes as evidence of what adequate scientific
research and global preparation can do in the event of a looming
catastrophe.

Already astronomers have mapped the heavens around our planet for

rocks to such an extent that within a few years even an asteroid

to make a near miss encounter with earth will be detected months or

years ahead of the encounter -- scientists will have plenty of

so that something may be done to minimize harm.

And so back to our moving earth and massive ocean waves.

There is no risk in the short or medium term, says McGuire, but the
volcano in question, Cumbre Vieja, could present humanity with a

problem at some point in the future. The tsunamis created by its
eruption and collapse into the sea would wipe out the entire

coastline of Africa. At 15 meters, the waves would still wash ashore

the southern coast of Ireland, wrecking havoc.
And the relatively flat landscape of Florida would be landfall for a
tsunami crossing the Atlantic Ocean at 800 kilometers per hour.

What can be done is simple, said McGuire. Patient and adequate
scientific monitoring of sites such as Cumbre Vieja will allow the
planet time to prepare.

For McGuire's University College London Web site, which is a
comprehensive resource on future global cataclysms, visit:
www.benfieldhrc.org.

http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=15815