Question: i heard somewhere that there was a volcanoe somewhere and if it where to erupt it would create a huge tsunami that would wipe out the east coast of america do you think this is likely

Christine Switzer answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Hi Stanley,

Coming from the east coast of America originally, I hope that won’t happen!

On a more serious note, the more volatile area of the world is in the Pacific. There is an area called the Pacific Ring of Fire (see here: http://geography.about.com/cs/earthquakes/a/ringoffire.htm) because it is the home to roughly 3/4 of the world’s volcanoes. Most of the big earthquakes happen in this region, too. We have seen a lot of them recently: Christchurch, NZ, and Northern Japan, both within the Ring of Fire, have been devastated by recent earthquakes.The Pacific Plate and its movements are the reason for much of this activity. That’s not to say that there aren’t earthquakes and such in the Atlantic region (Haiti is a very recent example), just that they are more rare. Scientists say that more earthquakes are possible in this region and tsunamis as a result are possible, too. They want to develop an early warning system for the Caribbean much like what has been developed for Asia. Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis are much less likely in the Caribbean but still possible.

If you take a look at the major plates making up the globe (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plates_tect2_en.svg), you will see how the Pacific Ring of Fire follows the Pacific Plate. A lot of the problem areas where we see a lot of volcanoes and earthquakes sit right on the borders of this Plate. Haiti is not on the Pacific plate but instead is right on the border between the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate. Locations that sit on plate borders are more vulnerable than locations in the centres of plates. As a result, engineers needs to take earthquakes into account when designing buildings, roads and other major services. Also, plans for disaster management will be important. An earthquake in Chile happened not long after the Haiti earthquake and the comparisons between them are really important. The earthquakes were really similar, but Chile has had more time and resource to devote to earthquake engineering and as a result, many fewer people died or lost their homes, showing that people can adapt to even severe events like these.

Cheers,
Christine