Fogo volcano in Ecuador which geologists think partially collapsed some 73,000 years ago, triggering a megatsunami which swept boulders from the shoreline into the highlands of Santiago island. Photo: PA WireFogo volcano in Ecuador which geologists think partially collapsed some 73,000 years ago, triggering a megatsunami which swept boulders from the shoreline into the highlands of Santiago island. Photo: PA Wire

A tsunami of biblical proportions caused by the sudden collapse of a volcano generated a wave nearly 305 metres high, scientists have discovered.

The event happened 73,000 years ago in the Cape Verde Islands off west Africa, long before there were any coastal cities that might have been flattened by the deluge.

But some experts fear a similar giant collapse could present a real threat today, especially around volcanic islands.

Lead scientist Ricardo Ramalho, from Columbia University in New York, said: “Our point is that flank collapses can happen extremely fast and catastrophically, and therefore are capable of triggering giant tsunamis. They probably don’t happen very often. But we need to take this into account when we think about the hazard potential of these kinds of volcanic features.”

The ancient collapse occurred at Fogo, one of the world’s largest and most active island volcanoes that today towers more than 2,743 metres above sea level. An estimated 167 cubic metres of rock fell into the ocean in one go, resulting in an 244-metre-high tsunami wave that engulfed an island more than 48 kilometres away.

By comparison, the largest known recent tsunamis, which devastated Indian ocean coasts in 2004 and eastern Japan in 2011, attained maximum heights of around 30 metres. These tsunamis were triggered by undersea earthquakes rather than volcanic collapses.

Clues left by the megatsunami included boulders the size of delivery vans that had been carried up to 609 metres inland and nearly 198 metres above sea level on Santiago Island, 55km from Fogo. The boulders, weighing up to 770 tons, matched marine-type rocks ringing the island’s shores and were quite unlike the volcanic terrain in which they were found.

By calculating the energy needed to hurl the boulders so far, the scientists were able to estimate the size of the wave. Their findings are reported in the journal Science Advances.

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