Life
Caribbean at risk of deadly Tsunamis
Geologists in the United States have warned that deadly tsunamis threaten the Caribbean and are an overlooked hazard in the region.
Scientists attending the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) here noted that the Caribbean’s beautiful tropical islands and coral reefs are strung along the junction of several major and minor tectonic plates.
They said many of the islands sit above a subduction zone, where two plates meet and one “slides protestingly under the other, down into Earth’s mantle”.
Geologists said other islands, like Haiti, “straddle strike-slip faults, where plates slide side by side”.
The scientists warn that more than 40 nations and territories in the region could suffer damage from a tsunami from the subduction zones. They said landslides from volcanoes falling into the sea are another hazard.
In addition, the scientists cautioned that “Haitian-style strike-slip earthquakes” can trigger submarine landslides, stating that the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010 in Haiti had caused a local tsunami on the south shore.
Geologists at the AGU meeting also noted that earthquakes in Europe are a “documented source of tsunamis in the Caribbean,” including ones from as far away as Portugal.
