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Sept. 3, 2005 President Bush has been warned about this, but he hasn't done anything about it. If it does actually happen, he should be severely criticized for not getting the Army Corps of Engineers to build a Dutch-style dike around our East Coast. What will surely occur, some time in the future, is that one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco is going to split apart. It's an unstable volcanic remnant called La Palma, The cracking is already beginning, to a measurable degree, and a huge chunk (about one third of the whole island) is slowly falling into the Atlantic Ocean. This is only about an inch per year, but it is accelerating, and it could suddenly let go and all crash into the water, any day now. British geologists say the inevitable crash will make a tsunami wave several hundred feet high, which will hit our East Coast with tragic effects "of Biblical proportions." The timing of this sort of thing is difficult to predict, just like the future earthquake in California, along the San Andreas fault. (President Bush isn't doing anything about that, either --- typical! That's going to affect the poor Black and Hispanic people more, because most of their homes are not reenforced, but Bush doesn't care.) Maybe the East Coast tsunami will happen tomorrow, or maybe in the next century, or maybe in the next millenium. But remember, the huge La Palma chunk is moving faster and faster. If you don't believe me, and you're not scared yet, look up La Palma in www.wikipedia.org. Or, just click on this capitalized word below, and then follow a few of the links about "massive wave:" TSUNAMI It is true that some geologists are saying this won't be so bad, but plenty of others are sticking to their original warnings. Of course, there always are some nay-sayers in situations like this, but shouldn't we be prepared? President Bush was also warned about the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster, but he didn't do anything. Recently he was warned about bombs in the New York subway system, but he hasn't shut down the subways. (Of course he didn't --- his rich cronies are making money by keeping things going!) Now let's think about how big the East Coast tsunami dike should be. Ten feet, for a wave that's hundreds of feet high? Well, how about a hundred feet? Maybe two hundred feet? The news media should get after Bush for not making up his mind about this. And you should write to your congressman (or congresswoman), expessing a sense of righteous indignation. ------------ About the author: Dan Shanefield is a retired engineering prof, who worked at Bell Labs and then at Rutgers University. He wrote the book "Industrial Electronics for Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians". Visit his website or email Dan Shanefield: shanefield@ieee.org Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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