What is the most dangerous natural disaster?

What is the most dangerous natural disaster?


  • Total voters
    116
Still though from a landslide, even a giant one as mentioned your going to have the wave dissipate as it spreads, the idea La Palma collasping is going to hit the east coast of the USA with a megatsunami is not widely supported, its more one guy hyping it because it naturally draws media interest and some TV docs were made about it.

The 2004 tsunami was able to have a big effect as far as Sri Lanka because a massive area of sea floor was jacked up, the wave wasn't just spreading from one point but from an area of sea floor almost 1000 miles long. That was I believe in terms of total energy the largest earthquake since measurements began, some higher local results have happened but not over the same area.

The east coast of the US is nearly as far away from La Palma as Sri Lanka is from Indonesia. Yet models predict the tsunami on the US coast could be 5 to 10 m tall which is almost the height the 2004 tsunami struck Indonesia. It's not a megatsunami, but it could be bad.

The 2004 was not the highest energy earthquake ever recorded.
 
cbace591a50cc3eecc93ab72fb8ce7ff5152ec4a_00.gif
 
The east coast of the US is nearly as far away from La Palma as Sri Lanka is from Indonesia. Yet models predict the tsunami on the US coast could be 5 to 10 m tall which is almost the height the 2004 tsunami struck Indonesia. It's not a megatsunami, but it could be bad.

The 2004 was not the highest energy earthquake ever recorded.

Who's models? based on what? I believe this all stems from a signal peer reviewed paper back in the 90's or 00's and gets hyped up by the media every few years. The biggest flaw I remember reading was that it assumed that the entire side of the island would break off as a single block, something that's impossible at that kind of scale.

There has been no deposits from previous widespread tsunami's discovered around the atlantic coast dispite there having been previous flank collapses in the Cannery islands.
 
You don't seem to understand that the wave keeps going until it strikes land where the energy is dissipated.

A wave spreading out from a single point in multiple directions will dissipate, thats just simple physics(you have a set amount od energy in one location moving into a much larger location) although it will also loose energy over distance in other ways, friction with the sea floor for example.
 
A wave spreading out from a single point in multiple directions will dissipate, thats just simple physics(you have a set amount od energy in one location moving into a much larger location) although it will also loose energy over distance in other ways, friction with the sea floor for example.

Tsunami is easily avoidable as well

Any decent-sized well-constructed building will save you
 
You don't seem to understand that the wave keeps going until it strikes land where the energy is dissipated. There was a report from an old Spanish mission in California that a wave deposited a boat near the mission that was on a hill high above the ocean. There is evidence that a landslide occurred in Hawaii at the correct timeline to have pushed a wave to California. That's 2500 miles. There is evidence along the west coast that there have been many large waves that came ashore in the past. A rise in the water level of 10 feet could be disaster for Florida, especially the Southern part that isn't very high above sea level. La Palma is 3700 miles from Florida but a look at the geography indicates the wave would be directed to the East coast of the US.
data=AG13tkU20q608t6eaond4hV2V6ThqIW1xQrsfR0xzttMHqkZZVmAzNNGLyMAZ7T28MlIrNjMnWUmCLc_JopCYhddCoatGuxaduFRl9trSuU-RzoF39e6xYyBXT6TvTnA0q5yar4M-Q0M07ygHSuHBZumpC49N9AvyZVjwnx1pwZHCLQFNseUxLeAylP5622Q4s6nlfWnKHNsMmPGORa-A8fq6pFbSKf8ogEOMFknwI6wUW-eTX-vXYqLbFqCauSF5VcdgA5QHOo1-7A9__rV5K9kol5a4DpcsSXieJtdA6vXpA

Most of Florida is well below 50 feet in elevation.

Here is a chart I found of the highest waves.
tsunami.jpg


The largest waves were higher because they were in confined spaces.

Still, the death toll from earthquakes and tsunami will be but a pittance compared to the devastation of a Supervolcano that would endanger the lives of almost every human on Earth.

Even with the widespread death toll of the 2004 Tsunami, the 1976 Earthquake in Tangshan China killed more people when at least 242,000 died and some claim it could be three times that many.

They are not this size when it reaches land.

There have been rouge waves that are measured to some insane heights but these are deep out at ocean and never get close to land. However, ships do need to be wary.
 
A pyroclastic flow is probably the most dangerous if your in its path, you can pretty much kiss you ass goodbye and look forward to being roasted alive, bodies in Herculaneum all have cracked skulls were their brains boiled and exploded out.

And your ass would still be cooked even if you were inside and within like 6 miles of the explosion.
 
The biggest Earthquake I've been in is 7.0, and you feel pretty helpless. Storms you can prepare for, and even Volcanos and tsunamis you often have early warning. The USA at least has invested quite heavily in early warning systems. I have a Tsunami alert siren 100 yard from my house, and we actually had a legit tsunami that we had a solid hour warning for. Town moved to high ground, and luckily the tsunami only ended up being about 2 feet.
 
Who's models? based on what? I believe this all stems from a signal peer reviewed paper back in the 90's or 00's and gets hyped up by the media every few years. The biggest flaw I remember reading was that it assumed that the entire side of the island would break off as a single block, something that's impossible at that kind of scale.

There has been no deposits from previous widespread tsunami's discovered around the atlantic coast dispite there having been previous flank collapses in the Cannery islands.

https://nws.weather.gov/nthmp/documents/grilli-grilli-cacr-13-03.pdf

https://today.uri.edu/news/anak-kra...tsunami-generation-explained-by-uri-modeling/

http://sites.tufts.edu/gis/files/2013/11/Lowe_Katherine.pdf
 
They are not this size when it reaches land.

There have been rouge waves that are measured to some insane heights but these are deep out at ocean and never get close to land. However, ships do need to be wary.

Those are the heights on land.
 

The Ward/Day model is I believe what I was talking about as the one that is not generally followed, its done via scaling up smaller landslides but with the size they are talking about a single block falling into the sea is very unlikely because the strength of the rock remains the same whilst the mass increases greatly, almost certainly you would get a series of smaller slips even if over a relatively brief time frame.

The Krakatoa study is for a much more localised event.
 
The Ward/Day model is I believe what I was talking about as the one that is not generally followed, its done via scaling up smaller landslides but with the size they are talking about a single block falling into the sea is very unlikely because the strength of the rock remains the same whilst the mass increases greatly, almost certainly you would get a series of smaller slips even if over a relatively brief time frame.

The Krakatoa study is for a much more localised event.

But that paper corrects the Ward/Dale model and that same model made accurate predictions for Krakatoa.

It might be unlikely, but if it does happen, which is the point of these papers, it would not be good.
 
Krakatoa was much more localised though, there talking thousands of miles away and at a much larger scale.
 
1. Volcanoes - doesn't need much explanation. Only one which you pretty much can't survive unless you get the fuck out of dodge
2. Tsunamis - This is survivable but horrifying; by product of earthquake(technically can be caused other ways)
3. Eathquake - Scary shit but very survivable odds wise
4. Hurricane - Usually lots of notice. Very survivable odds wise but could be horrifying if your in a worst possible location like near the beach during a storm surge which gives you some of the properties of the tsunami

Volcanoes have ample warning. Hours, days, weeks, months...

Tsunamis can strike while you are sleeping, and you only have a few minutes to reach high ground; that's if there is any high ground.
 
Forest fires too, add them to list.
 
Back
Top