Tsunamis Threaten East Coast.

Property/casualty insurers in the Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina markets could be in store for a different type of catastrophe --tsunamis.

Although tsunamis typically occur in Pacific Rim countries, in the May issue of Geology, scientists reported a potential for landslides off the continental shelf and slope along the Mid-Atlantic coast that could trigger 20foot-high waves. The coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay area are at a greater risk of flooding if a tsunami occurs, because their coastlines are low-lying and in a direction opposite to the potential slide motion of the shelf, according to the report.

The scientists, Neil Driscoll of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jeffrey Weissel of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and John Goff of the University of Texas at Austin, say it's difficult to forecast when and where tsunamis will strike. Tsunamis are devastating, as evidenced by the loss of 2,000 lives when one hit northern Papua New Guinea in 1998.

The researchers said if a tsunami hits, the destruction could be catastrophic given the development in the Mid-Atlantic and southern coastlines of the United States.