Can Cumbre Vieja-volcano at La Palma island cause the megatsunami?
The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano has lasted a long time. And the most apocalyptic vision this kind of eruption can cause the tsunami what destroys infrastructure at the costs of Spain, Portugal, and northern Africa. And can that happen?
The answer is that nobody knows. The reason why somebody believes that thing. Is that the eruption of the island of Thera (Santorini) caused a tsunami that destroyed Minoan culture a long time ago. Also, the tsunami of the Krakatoa eruption caused massive destruction at both times when that volcano has erupted.
The answer to that question that can Cumbre Vieja volcano causes similar destruction is that many things are different in the La Palma island than in Thera and Krakatoa. The thing that causes tsunamis in the eruptions of the volcano is the situation when the lava chamber is empty.
So tsunami is forming after the eruption in the case that chamber of the volcano is empty. When there is no pressure that thing causes the collapse of the lava chamber. Then the water will flow to the lava chamber. And then it will explode when water touches the heated stone. That explosion will cause the pressure effect that will make water molecules act like billiard balls.
The volcanic tsunami forms when the island explodes and water flows in the lava chamber. So the tsunami forms actually, after the eruption when the pressure of the empty lava chamber cannot resist the pressure of water.
The energy will travel from a molecule to another until it faces the coastline. And then the tsunami rises. While traveling in the deep sea the tsunami is hard to notice. The island of La Palma is far away from the coastline but the problem is that there is no friction between the bottom and the pressure wave. And if the coast is very abrupt the tsunami will rise very soon. The thing that determines the height of the tsunami is how deep the pressure wave starts its journey.
If the island collapses near the bottom of the ocean that causes that more water will take a part in the energy transfer and tsunami forming. In the cases, that the collapse happens near the surface there is less water taking apart in tsunamis and the wave will be weaker. The thing that makes the Krakatoa and Thera so devastating was that the eruption was over. At the moment when the collapse of the island happened.
The thing is that the symmetry of collapse of the island has also effect to the tsunami. If the island collapses straight down the tsunami should not be so powerful as in a non-symmetrical collapse. Surveillance cameras can show that if the island collapses. And if that happens there is a short time to give warning. But there are no surveillance cameras on all volcanic islands.
And most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes. The fact is that we cannot predict tsunamis. But there is the possibility to use radars and another thing to search the oceans. For warning people about this kind of catastrophe. The radar satellite can search the condensation of the water molecules. But the fact is that tsunamis are hard to predict.
https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/24/spain-s-cumbre-vieja-volcano-continues-to-erupt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vieja
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini
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