The volcanic island of La Palma in the Canaries is much more
stable than is generally assumed, Dutch scientists working at
the TU Delft have found. The southwestern flank of the island
isn’t likely to fall into the sea (potentially causing a
tsunami) for at least another 10,000 years, professor Jan
Nieuwenhuis states in the September edition of the university’s
science magazine Delft Integraal. The TU Delft research findings
should be a relief for people living at or near the Atlantic
coasts of the US, Africa and Europe. Six years ago, geologists
proposed that La Palma is so unstable that it might lose one of
its flanks during a volcanic eruption in the near future. This
would cause a ‘mega tsunami’ with massive waves up to hundreds
of meters in height. Cities like New York, Boston, Lisbon and
Casablanca would be all but wiped from the face of the planet,
according to the more pessimistic estimates. But according to
the new TU Delft research, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the
island simply isn’t large enough to