Large earthquakes along the Eastern Seaboard are very uncommon (but they do happen from time to time … Charleston S.C. in 1886 and Boston in 1755), making the threat of an earthquake-spawned ocean wave minimal. But that doesn’t mean the danger should be discounted. Tsunamis have hit the East Coast in the past. Philadelphia and the Delaware River (1817, 1884), Long Island (1895, 1871) and other places have seen tsunamis, though destruction was minimal compared to this week’s catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami, where the death toll is poised to rise past 100,000 people.
And closer to home, vacationers in Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks should pay attention as a tsunami danger lies just off shore. We aren’t talking about the part of the Canary Islands sliding into sea (though that threat is apparently overstated) or a meteor slamming into the Atlantic sending “Deep Impact“-like waves into the Mid-Atlantic. Scientists from Pennsylvania State University have identified a tsunami threat from North America’s continental shelf, which is unstable. Fissures on the edge of the continental shelf off the Virginia and North Carolina coasts could cause an undersea landslide. Similar fissures are present off the New Jersey coast. Any undersea landslide of a great magnitude would send giant waves crashing over tiny sandy barrier islands and far inland.
