Guest blog by Madeline Bryant and Erin Knox
La Palma is the fifth largest island off of the Canary Island Chain located of the Northwest Coast of Africa. La Palma is a volcanic ocean island with an inactive shield volcano that stands seven kilometers high on its north end. In the southern part of the Island lies the active volcano- Cumbre Vieja. The Cumbre Vieja is a rift volcano that lies in a rift zone atop a cluster of volcanic vents. Cumbre Vieja is situated above deep dykes that reveal themselves in the topography as rifts, these dykes lie in a three pointed star shape along fissure zones. The rift along the lateral side of the volcano make its western flank unstable. The volcano is currently active- any major activity creates a threat for many volcanic hazards to those who inhabit the island and those around it. The weakness in the rift formation on its western side and the 15-20° slope makes it unstable in the event of an eruption and a landslide is highly probable. The potential landslide would plummet into the ocean creating a massive ‘mega-tsunami’ wave that could reach the east coast of North America in six hours. The wave is predicted to subside from its initial 600m height into multiple waves of thirty to sixty meters high and inundate the US East coast 16 mi inland.