But not all tsunamis are created equal.
When a tsunami reaches such a stupendous size that it towers hundreds of feet in the air and devastates everything in its path, the event is promoted to mega-tsunami. In July of 1958, a little-known spot on the coast of Alaska called Lituya Bay suffered an earthquake-triggered landslide, that in turn gave birth to a mega-tsunami. This wave reached a height of 100 feet and raced uphill more than 1,700 feet above sea level, scouring the landscape of all vegetation, stripping the hillside down to bare rock.
The Lituya Bay mega-tsunami was caused by an estimated 30 million cubic meters of rock crashing into the bay. The Cumbre Vieja ridge volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands erupted in 1949 and created a one-and-a-half-kilometer fracture down the middle of the island. The entire western flank of the volcano shifted a meter along the fracture and dropped between two and four meters toward the Atlantic before stopping short of a full-on landslide.
When Cumbre Vieja finally breaks free, some estimates place the amount of rock involved at more than 500 cubic kilometers. Computer simulations show that the initial wave created by that much rock rushing into the Atlantic Ocean would tower over 900 meters in less than two minutes. A wave almost half a mile high can’t hold itself together, though, and within ten minutes would collapse to a little over a hundred meters high.
But like a child that sloshes water in a bathtub, when a wave hits the side of the tub—or land—it rebounds and creates new waves. Computer models suggest a landslide at Cumbre Vieja would create a series of massive waves forming after the first titanic crest, each ranging over 500 meters high and devastating La Palma before rushing west.
This series of waves, propelled by the enormous landslide, would quickly reach speeds in excess of 500 to 600 miles per hour. With nothing stopping them, they would spread out across the Atlantic, just like waves in every single tsunami event ever recorded. Every wave that makes landfall slows as it encounters the inclining sea floor leading to the coast, and with that slowing of momentum comes a gain in height.
Over the open ocean, all tsunamis drop in height, and a La Palma mega-tsunami would be no different, falling from 900 meters to only a meter or two high in the middle of the Atlantic. But as it nears the coast of America, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and South America, those waves will regain some height, crashing ashore anywhere from 10 to 30 meters high.
Size isn’t the only result of such an historic event. Where the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami washed inland a little over a mile in most places, the mega-tsunami caused by a landslide on La Palma is projected to reach a staggering 12 miles or more inland before it retreats back to the ocean from whence it came.
Many of America’s largest cities east of the Mississippi are well within that damage zone. Upwards of 20 million Americans would be at grave risk in such a situation and will have about six hours to evacuate inland.
One only needs to look at the traffic snarls and congestion caused during hurricane evacuations in recent years—where citizens were well informed and had days to prepare—to see what chaos might be unleashed if millions of people all tried to flee inland within a six hour window.
It has been said through the millennia that tides and time wait for no man. That saying will never be truer than when America faces a mega-tsunami.
Chapter 1
Green Harbor, Massachusetts
Reese Lavelle yawned as he carried his backpack down the dock toward the sport fishing boat at the end of the concrete finger sticking out into the harbor’s cold waters. Next to him, his friend and colleague from TechSafe, Ben Hillmer laughed and shoved a styrofoam coffee cup into Reese’s hand.
“Wake up, man, today’s the day!”
“It’s a day,” Reese agreed, inhaling the bitter scent of the black-as-tar coffee Ben liked to drink.
“Come on, you gotta be positive! You’re totally gonna land that monster tuna you’ve been dreaming about. Am I right?”
Reese looked at Ben over the rim of the coffee cup as he sipped the scalding hot liquid. “I think you dropped your pom-pom.”
“There’s my two top dogs!” Eddie Morenez, their regional VP of sales said, beaming from the transom of the Charming Betty. The luxury boat TechSafe had chartered for the four-day fishing trip rocked gently at her moorings, gleaming in the weak light of dawn.
Behind him, Jimmy, Eddie’s favorite bootlicker, crossed his thick arms and frowned. In the dim light, he looked ridiculous in his Oakleys, but that was Jimmy—he was always just a little cooler than everyone else.
“You two related?” asked Reese as Ben accepted Eddie’s hand and climbed aboard.
Jimmy followed Eddie’s lead and reached down to help Reese. He effortlessly hauled Reese aboard.
Eddie laughed. “Related? What?”
“Ignore him,” Ben said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Reese thinks we’re too enthusiastic for this early in the morning.”
Eddie guffawed, his trademarked gut-slapping, good-ol’-boy belly buster that had won over more clients than any sales rep in company history. It was part of the reason why he was in charge of TechSafe’s entire sales force now. Jimmy resumed his position just over his boss’s shoulder, crossed his arms, and frowned again.
“Dude,” Ben said to Jimmy. “Lighten up.”
Jimmy grunted. “I’m just doin’ what I’m told.”
“How old are you?” asked Reese under his breath. Jimmy was Eddie’s go-fer. He was always sending the huge sales rep to fetch coffee, pick up lunch, drop off dry-cleaning—whatever silly errand the big important boss didn’t have time to handle, he pawned off on Jimmy. And the
