🚨 Scientist Warns Massive Volcano Collapse Could Send 65-Foot Tsunami Toward US East Coast — But Experts Dispute Catastrophic Prediction

A massive section of a volcano collapses into the Atlantic Ocean. Within hours, enormous waves race toward the American coastline. Florida, the Carolinas and other coastal communities could face a devastating emergency. It sounds like a disaster movie, but one volcanologist says it is a geological possibility — even as other scientists strongly dispute how destructive such an event would be.

UNITED STATES — November 7, 2026. A renewed warning about a potential volcanic megatsunami has drawn attention to the Spanish Canary Islands, where scientists have long studied the possibility of a massive landslide involving the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge.

Volcanologist Professor Bill McGuire has suggested that a future collapse of the volcano’s western flank could displace enormous quantities of seawater and generate powerful waves capable of traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.

In an extreme scenario, waves reaching approximately 65 feet could strike parts of the southeastern United States within nine hours.

But the warning comes with a ᑕriᩚtiᩚcal qualification.

There is no evidence that such a collapse is imminent, and scientists disagree sharply over whether it could generate waves of that size on American shores.

The Volcano at the Center of the Warning

Cumbre Vieja lies on La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa.

The island was formed through volcanic activity over millions of years.

Its steep terrain rises dramatically above the Atlantic Ocean, with enormous quantities of volcanic rock extending beneath the surface.

Scientists have studied the stability of the island’s western flank for decades.

During an eruption in 1949, fractures developed along portions of the volcanic ridge.

Those fractures helped inspire concern that a sufficiently large section of the island might eventually collapse into the ocean.

McGuire has argued that such an event could trigger an exceptionally powerful tsunami.

The mechanism is straightforward in principle.

When a massive landslide suddenly enters the ocean, it can displace seawater and generate waves that spread outward from the collapse.

The larger and faster the displacement, the greater the potential hazard near the source.

A Nine-Hour Journey Across the Atlantic?

In an article published by BBC Science Focus on October 16, McGuire described one particularly extreme computer-generated scenario.

The model assumes a massive section of the volcanic flank collapses into the Atlantic in a rapid event.

Such a landslide could initially produce extraordinary waves near La Palma and neighboring islands.

The resulting tsunami could then travel outward across the ocean.

According to the scenario discussed by McGuire, waves around 20 meters high — approximately 65 feet — could reach Florida roughly nine hours later.

The possibility is alarming because coastal cities contain densely populated neighborhoods, transportation infrastructure, hospitals and businesses.

But these figures describe a hypothetical worst-case scenario.

They are not a forecast of an approaching disaster.

Why Some Scientists Disagree

The potential impact of a Cumbre Vieja collapse has been debated extensively within the scientific community.

The US Geological Survey has challenged the idea that a landslide on La Palma would produce a devastating wall of water across the American East Coast.

Its review of more recent tsunami simulations found that an extreme collapse could generate waves of approximately 1–2 meters along the eastern coasts of the Americas.

That is roughly 3–7 feet.

Such waves could still be hazardous, particularly in vulnerable coastal areas.

But they are far smaller than the 65-foot waves described in the more dramatic model.

The difference reflects how much tsunami predictions depend on assumptions about the size, speed and structure of a landslide.

A single enormous collapse can produce very different results from a series of smaller failures.

Scientists also study how wave energy disperses during a journey across an ocean basin.

Could the Volcano Actually Collapse?

Large volcanic landslides are real geological events.

They have occurred throughout Earth’s history and have sometimes generated destructive tsunamis.

However, they are exceptionally rare.

USGS scientists have noted that giant collapses in the Canary Islands typically occur on timescales of hundreds of thousands of years.

Studies of La Palma’s structure have also indicated that the volcanic flank is currently stable.

A major collapse would likely require significant changes in the volcano’s geological structure.

Scientists would expect increasing seismic activity, ground deformation or other indications of instability before a large failure.

No credible scientific assessment has established that the proposed megatsunami is about to occur.

McGuire himself acknowledges that the hypothetical collapse could be centuries or even millennia away.

The Geological Evidence Behind the Debate

Supporters of the megatsunami hypothesis have pointed to enormous boulders discovered along coastlines in the Bahamas.

Some researchers have suggested that ancient tsunamis transported these rocks over great distances.

If confirmed, that interpretation could provide evidence that exceptional waves have crossed the Atlantic in the geological past.

But the origin of the deposits remains disputed.

Other geological processes may explain some of the boulders.

USGS researchers have also noted the absence of characteristic tsunami deposits along the eastern coasts of North and South America.

That missing evidence weakens the argument for repeated enormous transatlantic tsunamis originating from the Canary Islands.

Why Volcanic Tsunamis Still Matter

Although the most extreme La Palma predictions remain disputed, volcanic tsunamis are a genuine natural hazard.

In 1883, the eruption and collapse of Krakatoa in Indonesia generated destructive waves that killed tens of thousands of people.

More recently, the 2018 collapse of Anak Krakatau triggered a tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Indonesia.

Those disasters demonstrate how dangero