This 2011 National Geographic documentary examines the possibility of a La Palma mega tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption and landslide into the sea. A La Palma tsunami could be more devastating than the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, caused by an earthquake and megathrust landslip under the Indian Ocean that killed 250,000 people. Or the 2011 Pacific tsunami caused by a 9.1 earthquake and megathrust landslip off the east coast of Japan that disabled three nuclear reactors.

Scattered across the world’s oceans are a handful of geological time bombs. Once unleashed, they create an extraordinary phenomenon, a mega tsunami. More massive than a regular tsunami, mega tsunamis are caused by volcanic landslides and cross oceans to ravage countries on the other side of the world. Scientists now realise that the next mega tsunami is likely to originate on the volcanic island of La Palma. A La Palma mega tsunami would race across the Atlantic at the speed of a jetliner devastating the Caribean and the East Coast of the USA.

Back in 1953, two geologists travelled to a remote bay in Alaska looking for oil. They soon noticed that the bay showed signs of being hit by huge waves and wondered what could have caused them. Five years later, they got their answer. In 1958 a towering cliff collapsed into the bay, causing a mega tsunami over half a kilometre high. The true destructive potential of a landslide-generated tsunami, which scientists have termed a mega tsunami, suddenly became apparent. If a moderate landslide in a bay in Alaska could generate a tsunami of this size, what type of tsunami could be generated by the lateral collapse of a volcanic island into the sea?

Geologists began to look for evidence of past landslides and were amazed by what they found on the seafloor. The sea bed around Hawaii, for example, was covered with the remains of millions of years’ worth of ancient volcanic landslides. And, high above sea level at numerous locations, the remains of sea creatures bore witness to gigantic destructive waves in the recent past. The last one happened 4,000 years ago on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

The growing concern is that a volcanic eruption on La Palma could lead to a massive landslide and mega tsunami. In 1949 the southern volcano on La Palma erupted. An enormous crack then appeared across one side of the volcano as the western half slipped a few metres towards the sea. Some scientists now believe that the west flank of the volcano is in imminent danger of collapse. In other words, a future volcanic eruption on La Palma will release some 500,000 million tonnes of rock into the sea causing a mega tsunami.

Scientists predict that a La Palma mega tsunami will be almost inconceivably destructive, far greater than anything ever witnessed in modern times. It will surge across the Atlantic Ocean in a matter of hours, wiping out towns and cities across the Caribbean and engulfing the east coast of the USA up to 20 km inland.

National Geographic Doomsday Tsunami
La Palma Tsunami Documentary | National Geographic Mega Tsunami Documentary HD

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