Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Can we survive a mega-tsunami? Such was the question asked on BBC2 in an eponymous programme. The territory is not new: a gigantic rock slide in the Canaries - think half of an island collapsing post earth-quake, leading to a calamitous series of tidal waves travelling up to Britain and Ireland and across the Atlantic. The diagnosis wasn't good; while not the 'Global Killer' scenario beloved by Disaster Movies, it would lead to tens of thousands of deaths and huge displacement of social and economic activity, i.e. everyday life. Most of the Caribbean would be devastated by 10-30 metre waves, there would be, in Disaster Movie Lingo, no hiding place. Sharp use of graphics and actual tsunami footage mad for a powerful, if grim, look at the Sum of All Fears (done it again there 'tvreviewguy'). The thought of having no-where to run is indeed a chilling one. The various featured Boffins posited that much of the US Eastern Seaboard would be swept away with very little warning time for evacuation (maybe as little as 2-4 hours). In some ways, you can't plan for such an event and just have to accept it as a risk and try not to think about it. We are due such an event in the next few hundred to thousands of years, or tomorrow - who knows, humans may be living on Mars or still stuck on our vulnerable planet. Either way, it won't be fun to be around for.