La Palma is the most volcanically active island in the Canary Islands Archipelago. The western half of the volcano has an approximate volume of
500 cubic km (120 cu miles) and an estimated mass of
1,500,000,000,000 metric tons (1.7×1012
short tons).
If this mass collapsed and slid into the ocean, it
could generate a wave with an initial height of about 1,000 m
(3,300 ft) at the island, and a likely height of around 50 m
(164 ft) at the Caribbean and the Eastern North American seaboard when it runs ashore 8 or more hours later. Tens of millions of lives could be lost all the way down the Atlantic Coast in Europe, North America and South America and Africa.
Divergent professional opinions declare this megatsunami is either inevitable, or impossible.
