Jon Jefferson's Blog
March 25, 2018
Wave of Terror: The Stories Behind the Story
A Multi-Part Blog Series
Part 1 - In the Beginning
By Jon Jefferson
Back in the fall of 2000 – back during my stint as a television documentary writer/producer – I read a description of a BBC documentary that blew me away. The film, part of the BBC’s science series, “Horizon,” was titled “Mega Tsunami, Wave of Destruction.” The gist of it was this: On the tiny island of La Palma, off the northwest coast of Africa, lurked a ticking geological time bomb.
La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, is very young geologically, very active volcanically, and very unstable seismically. What’s more, the high, steep volcanic ridge that forms the island’s backbone is split by a major fault line. According to the BBC documentary, a major earthquake or volcanic eruption – such as the island experienced in 1949 and 1971 – could cause a massive chunk of the island, up to 500 cubic kilometers (imagine 200,000 Great Pyramids!) to break off and plunge into the sea.
And that would be only the start of an unstoppable cataclysm. The landslide would displace an enormous amount of water: the world’s biggest stone tossed into one of the world’s biggest ponds, the Atlantic Ocean. The result? The biggest tsunami, by far, ever recorded in human history: a mega tsunami, with catastrophic consequences on four continents.
This scary scenario was described in detail by two scientists, U.S. geophysicist Steven Ward and U.K. earth scientist Simon Day. Ward and Day didn’t just say it might happen; they also did detailed calculations and modeling of how big and bad the wave could be, in the worst-case scenario. “Big and bad” are putting it mildly, according to the documentary. The initial wave – the big splash, if you will – could be up to 3,300 feet high. From La Palma, it would radiate outward, fanning across the entire Atlantic. According to their calculations, although the wave would lose energy as it spread, it could still be more than 150 feet high when it struck America’s East Coast. A video simulation showed the wave racing across the ocean, its changing heights color-coded in a way that made it look like some deadly tropical flower unfolding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4T8...
Before turning television producer, I’d spent years as a science writer. Ward and Day seemed legit – their theory was published in peer-reviewed journals, though the theory was challenged by other scientists. And I’d read enough news stories in my lifetime to know that humans are insignificant and powerless in the face of large-scale natural disasters.
I found the idea of a La Palma mega tsunami both fascinating and terrifying.
Little did I know just how terrified I was about to become.
Next time: What if?
If you're interested in having me Skype in to your next book club, please message me!
Part 1 - In the Beginning
By Jon Jefferson
Back in the fall of 2000 – back during my stint as a television documentary writer/producer – I read a description of a BBC documentary that blew me away. The film, part of the BBC’s science series, “Horizon,” was titled “Mega Tsunami, Wave of Destruction.” The gist of it was this: On the tiny island of La Palma, off the northwest coast of Africa, lurked a ticking geological time bomb.
La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, is very young geologically, very active volcanically, and very unstable seismically. What’s more, the high, steep volcanic ridge that forms the island’s backbone is split by a major fault line. According to the BBC documentary, a major earthquake or volcanic eruption – such as the island experienced in 1949 and 1971 – could cause a massive chunk of the island, up to 500 cubic kilometers (imagine 200,000 Great Pyramids!) to break off and plunge into the sea.
And that would be only the start of an unstoppable cataclysm. The landslide would displace an enormous amount of water: the world’s biggest stone tossed into one of the world’s biggest ponds, the Atlantic Ocean. The result? The biggest tsunami, by far, ever recorded in human history: a mega tsunami, with catastrophic consequences on four continents.
This scary scenario was described in detail by two scientists, U.S. geophysicist Steven Ward and U.K. earth scientist Simon Day. Ward and Day didn’t just say it might happen; they also did detailed calculations and modeling of how big and bad the wave could be, in the worst-case scenario. “Big and bad” are putting it mildly, according to the documentary. The initial wave – the big splash, if you will – could be up to 3,300 feet high. From La Palma, it would radiate outward, fanning across the entire Atlantic. According to their calculations, although the wave would lose energy as it spread, it could still be more than 150 feet high when it struck America’s East Coast. A video simulation showed the wave racing across the ocean, its changing heights color-coded in a way that made it look like some deadly tropical flower unfolding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4T8...
Before turning television producer, I’d spent years as a science writer. Ward and Day seemed legit – their theory was published in peer-reviewed journals, though the theory was challenged by other scientists. And I’d read enough news stories in my lifetime to know that humans are insignificant and powerless in the face of large-scale natural disasters.
I found the idea of a La Palma mega tsunami both fascinating and terrifying.
Little did I know just how terrified I was about to become.
Next time: What if?
If you're interested in having me Skype in to your next book club, please message me!
