Posted on 12/26/2004 10:56:24 PM PST by BenLurkin
Scientists traveled to the Aleutian Chain last summer to check out a colossal submarine landslide blamed for one of the most devastating tsunamis of the 20th century. They wanted to find out how sea-floor life responded to such a huge disturbance and produce detailed charts. What they got was a shock of seismic proportions.
Instead of a 12-mile-wide avalanche dropping 30 to 40 miles down the continental slope into the abyss of the Aleutian Trench, sonar surveys and the remotely operated underwater vehicle Jason II found regular ocean bottom, eroded and crusty and largely undisturbed.
There was no slide. And now no one knows what triggered the legendary tsunami of 1946, which destroyed Scotch Cap lighthouse on Unimak Island and killed 159 people in Hawaii.
"Basically, we found sea floor evidence that will cause tsunami modelers to rethink the cause and characteristics of the 1946 tsunami," wrote research associate Tony Rathburn and professor Lisa Levin, principle investigators with the project at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "The sea floor landslide ... that seemed to be evident from previous, low-resolution (charts) does not exist."
A Hawaiian geophysicist working on the project now believes that an underwater slide probably hit farther east along the Aleutian slope, near a feature that might be the toe of a previously unknown avalanche. Triggered by an earthquake, this slide would have created a tsunami. When the wave rolled into shallow water, the theory goes, it accelerated into a bore of incredible power, surging along the shore of Unimak Island with hurricane force.
"You think of a 40-foot wave or a 50-foot-high wave traveling at 140 mph," said Gerard Fryer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa in an interview earlier this month. "It's an astounding image. It's almost beyond our comprehension."
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Ping
Very interesting!
"You think of a 40-foot wave or a 50-foot-high wave traveling at 140 mph," said Gerard Fryer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa in an interview earlier this month. "It's an astounding image. It's almost beyond our comprehension."
Well I wonder he they would rate the following if 140 MPH is beyond comprehension:
Moving at about 500 mph, the waves took more than two hours to reach Sri Lanka, where the human toll has been horrific, and longer to spread to India and the east coast of Africa
58 years from now all scientists will eventually agree that Global Warming was bunk, too.
One theory they did not mention could account for their observations and the tsunamis. Perhaps a large meteor struck the ocean, disintegrated, creating the tsunamis and the blast triggered the small earthquakes that they originally attributed the tsunamis to.
Or, the Jolly Green Giant flushed his toilet.
Or, Teddy Kennedy did a cannonball from an Alaskan Cliff.
If they could confirm what caused it, would it make any difference? Then or in the future?
Well, their problem was that they couldn't figure out how a 7.2 earthquake could have created such large tsunamis... so they invented this HUGH undersea avalanche to explain it. Now they are back to square one... no avalanche.
Since they thought that a large avalanche caused the tsunamis, they have been looking for areas that might have other large avalanches and some of their warning system for tsunamis is based on what may be a flawed theory. That is series.
However, with our modern system of seismagraphs, satellite observations, and other cool stuff, we could still warn any places due to be struck by a tsunami early enough to get the people out and give them time to say good-bye to their houses...
But then we didn't get the word out fast enough in Sumatra and Thailand...
Scientist: Asteroid May Hit Earth in 2029
Yahoo/AP ^ | 12/23/04 | JOHN ANTCZAK
Posted on 12/23/2004 8:24:16 PM PST by hole_n_one
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1307719/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 700 in Asia
yahoo/AP ^ | 12-26-04 | LELY T. DJUHARI
Posted on 12/26/2004 1:18:45 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308542/posts
Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia
(Update: Death toll now tops 11,500)
AP ^ | Sun, Dec 26, 2004
Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308556/posts
Asian Tsunamis Surge Against East African Coast
Reuters ^ | Dec 26, 2004 12:11 PM ET | C. Bryson Hull
Posted on 12/26/2004 9:53:01 AM PST by sully777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308649/posts
Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People
AP ^ | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY
Posted on 12/26/2004 8:57:28 PM PST by TexKat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1308840/posts
bttt
Came across this article from December 12th regarding unexplained deep "chatter" 40 miles beneath the San Adreas fault. I wonder if there is a possible connection to the recent quake activity on the wern rim of the 'Ring of Fire'.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298650/posts
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