Geologists working off the coast of West Africa, concluded that 73,000 years ago, a tsunami six times taller than the wave that hit Japan in 2011, struck the Cape Verde Islands. A tsunami of that size is unprecedented in modern history.
Before this discovery, scientists had known of the basalt and limestone rocks that exist there but weren’t sure how they got there. What they did know was that a volcano on the island of Fogo had crumbled and fallen into the ocean. The tsunami they had discovered was so powerful that it propelled elephant-sized boulders over 600-feet through the water and air and onto the plateau of the island.
The discovery of this mega-tsunami through studying the huge boulders provides additional information and explanation that legitimatize the possibility of other past disasters. 49 boulders weighing up to 700 tons were lifted to their current position by a gargantuan tsunami.
