An unstable island volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands could fragment and fall into the sea, creating a monstrous “megatsunami” that could level the US east coast within hours, a scientist has warned. However, when (or even if) such a disaster will occur remains an open scientific question. Volcanologist Professor Bill McGuire has been monitoring Cumbre Vieja, a volcano that has the potential to create a deadly transatlantic tsunami, according to an article he published in BBC Science Focus. Lava fountains erupt from the Kilauea volcano on Saturday, January 24, 2026 in Kilauea, Hawaii. Getty Images Growing concern centers on a massive rock wall, also known as a “flank,” creeping toward the sea that would displace a biblical amount of water if it collapsed, McGuire said. “Based on extensive studies, I expect that this portion of the flank will eventually crash into the North Atlantic, triggering a megatsunami in the process,” he wrote. “There has been much debate and discussion, sometimes quite heated, about the level of destruction expected and, in particular, whether devastating waves will reach the North American coast.” To support the potential for such waves to cross the ocean, researchers point to massive, out-of-place rocks deposited along the coasts of the Bahamas. Bill McGuire, a prominent volcanologist, appears in this photo. Linkedin Geologists believe that prehistoric tsunamis from the Canary Islands swept those rocks across the Atlantic, leaving physical evidence that the effects of flank collapses can reach across the ocean. The worst-case scenario would be waves up to 65 feet high that could reach the East Coast in nine hours if the flank collapsed, according to McGuire’s computer simulations. A tsunami breaks an embankment and flows toward Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, on March 11, 2011, following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. AFP via Getty Images Crucially, experts stress that an Atlantic catastrophe is not lurking around the corner. While the wave itself would travel at airplane speed once generated, the collapse itself might not occur for centuries or even millennia. “I have no doubt that this will be a cataclysmic event, but I have no idea when it will happen; it could easily be centuries or even millennia,” McGuire said.
