Skippers beware: Tsunamis in the North Atlantic

[Skybird]

The shrinking ice shield at Greenland has an unpleasant consequence: the landmass of Greenland, until some years ago rising with 0.5-1 cm per year, has quadrupled it'S speed and currently moves upwards with 4 cm per year, increasing. until recently, the mass of the ice has pished Greenland several hundred meters into earth's crust. Also, the glaciers are moving faster and become smaller, increasing the speed at wich the ice is shrinking and Greenland is rising, because streams/tidings of warmer water are observed to drill holes and tunnels into the ice and create vertical "rivers" of warm water into the ice. Where they reach the bottom, they function like sliders on which the ice is moving like a hovercraft on an air cushion, reducing friction and thus increasing their speed, sometimes dramatically.

http://environment.newscientist.com/...sing-fast.html (still free)

Of course this has an impact on the structure of the tectonic tension in the region, which could lead to great ground movements at the bottom of the Atlantic. And since there is water everywhere, this has the potential for creating Tsunamis.

Tsunamis are nothing new in the north Atlantic. The last one took place 8000 years ago, and the sediment layer at the Scottish coast allow the conclusion that it must have hit the european coast with waves as high as 20m. Much higher waves can be imagined and theoretically founded by scenarios. the highest suggestion I ever read abiut was 300 m, but let'S don't get heavy aboiut that number. Scientitst were able to prove that up to 27 Tsunamis must have taken place in the North Atlantic in the past 20000 years,. most of them must have been triggered by the rise of the ocean sea level that took place 15000 years ago.

In the north Atlantic, the continental shelfs steeply fall to depths of several thiusand meters. Rubble and loose sediments are mostly being hold together by being frozen in methane hydrate, like dirt in a snowball. But the average temperature of the water is rising, and to this now additional growing tectonic instability of the greenland landmass must be added. The likelihood that along whole continental coasts, in a chain reaction, masses of rubble and sediments start moving and falling hundreds and thiousands of meter easily can trigger the energy to create waves that match that ebergy potential of the Tsunamis of the past.

http://environment.newscientist.com/...mg19025531.300 (subscription needed)

What it would mean if a Tsunamis offshore of Norway hits Europe, you can read in thrilling visual detail in this very exciting thriller by Frank Schätzing, "The Swarm". It means the total destruction of major parts of central Europe. If you move the centre of the Tsunmai more towars the West, it means nothing else for the coastal region of north America as well. Coastal regions means: up to 300 km, some say even more, into the landmass. Inside this, everything gets devastated.

Some scientists also refer to the high threat potential of the volcano at La Palma. Since it last outbrake after WWII, parts of it have slipped by 4 m, increasing the instability of the whole formation. If it would lose it's stability doe to increased water erosion or tectonic activity (the Greenland rising reaches as far as to the Canary Islands), it would mean that a minimum of 500 km3 would fall into the sea and down to the Atlantic's seabed. This implies the creation of enough energy that it would be sufficient also to trigger a major Tsunami wave.

Denmark, most of Germany up to it'S middle, Netherlands, much of France, and parts of Spain would be waved of the map, literally. Estimations go as high as 150 million people killed within the first day Total population of europe is slightly below 500 million, I think.

Since climate change most likely translates into "warming" for the forseeable future indeed, and many symptoms that have been pointed at by sceptics (for example the short-termed increase of ice at the southern pole) easily can be revealed not to indicate a new cooling, but to be further evidence for warming, if you only look close enough, the growing instability of the sediments and rubble layers at the steep shelfs in the atlantic seem to be a certainty that at some point in the forseeable (= not hundreds of years away) future will go beyond the critical point. So the questions most likely is not if there will be a Tsnuami in the north Atlantic, but when.