Posted on 12/28/2004 1:48:01 AM PST by kattracks
Five to 10 minutes before it strikes, a tsunami usually gives a powerful warning that's hard to miss from the shore.It's not a roiling wave coming in, but the reverse - all the water in view going out to sea in the most massive and powerful undertow imaginable.
"If you're standing on the beach, the water can recede all the way out to the horizon," said Brian Yanagi, Hawaii's program specialist for earthquakes and tsunamis.
"Our biggest worry is for surfers, swimmers and Boogie Boarders because that giant undertow starts quickly and moves out at about 30 mph, pulling everything down beneath the surface.
"If you're standing in waist-high water or even less, it will pull you out and down and kill you," he said.
Those on the shore have 10 minutes to reach high ground before the tsunami waves - actually walls of tumbling water - strike.
On April 1, 1946, before a tsunami struck the town of Hilo on the eastern shore of Hawaii island, the town's entire mile-wide harbor drained into the ocean.
"People came rushing down to see what happened, there were fish flopping around on the ground - and then the wave hit," said Ray Novell, spokesman for Hawaii's Civil Defense Department. More than 150 were killed in that incident.
That first killer wave is just the beginning of the tsunami. The big damage is caused by the third, fourth or fifth wave, according to Yanagi.
An undersea earthquake causes seismic shocks that produce numerous waves, each more powerful than the previous one in the cycle of massive undertows and debris gathered up and into the incoming waves, Yanagi said.
A tsunami can last from 30 minutes to 10 hours depending on the power and configuration of the original quake.
Originally published on December 28, 2004
7th Grade Earth Science..
the article's writer is one William Sherman, any relation to the famous namesake?
Yeah, nothing would help because......
IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT!
(I'm seriesly wondering how soon they'll be screaming this, again)
I could not believe my ears yesterday when I was watching CrossFire on CNN. Al Sharpton was apparently the guest liberal and he asked if global warming might have something to do with the tital wave!!
I wonder what would have happened in librat circles if Michael Crichton walked on the set and slapped Al.
Source: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/c&gs/theb2705.htm
Big photo: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/c&gs/images/big/theb2705.jpg
Credit: NOAA Photo Library, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA), United States Government
I can't imagine a tsunami creating a vacuum out in front of its path, which is what it would take to create an undertow, unless a huge wave pulled water from below, stacked it up high, creating room for an undertow.
Man oh man. Nature is mind blowing. Think of the force of a little 3 foot wave you've played in that's tossed you around and magnify it times a a million billion!
There are some fringe claims that big quakes and eruptions can be triggered by Tesla's sorts of technologies.
I know of NO claims or even serious wild fantasies that they can be prevented.
Everything I've ever read asserts that the energies, dynamics, quantities of masses and energies involved are vastly wayyyyyyyyyy beyond man's dinking with remotely successfully.
And that's not even considering God's hand in the affairs of men. I believe God is in the process of pulling back the veil and showing man just how puny man's capacities are--and how overblown man's arrogance is.
I'd be extremely surprised if you held onto a shred of your perspective within 55 years max.
The depths and temperatures involved are beyond conceiving of any technology to work at those depths even in wild fantasies currently.
Temperatures and pressures would prevent getting anything that would remotely hold it's shape a fraction of the distance.
The massive temperatures and pressures involved would require 10's of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of such drill holes.
It would be much more possible to move Los Angeles to Mars.
All we need is for President Bush to sign the Kyoto Treaty. (/sarcasm)
If the goal were saving lives on the shore, it would be rather counter productive!
And, would probably take a lot of tactical nukes hitting the water in a line at precisely the right point and timing.
Sounds like another unrealistic wild fantasy, to me.
How about just knocking him out cold. More fitting.
WOULD YOU PLEASE consider coming to this thread and setting them straight on the wildly astronomical impossibilities of drilling holes etc. and preventing such quakes and tsunamis? Several posters seem convinced that we'll have it all solved by technology before too long. Sigh.
Don't you mean Sherman Williams?
Date: 12/27/04 19:52:21
Subject: Mr. Tsunami
Hello all:
Figured it would be easier to send out a mass email (I will answer everyone's as well in time).
Things have been a bit crazy and the pix look better than what it is like.
Where to began? I didn't even know there was a quake. I was at our dive shop teaching a course, I happened to be in the pool which was lucky for me. I was getting out of the pool with a student when all hell broke lose.
People came running by us screaming and yelling about a wall of water. I turned around and just saw water and water and water. The beach was gone, cars were being thrown over walls and motorbikes were being rushed down the streets.
Things subsided rather guickly but then the uncertainty sank in. Actually getting tired of the word aftershock!!!
Phi Phi Islands, Similans and most beaches are gone. If you own a hotel on the beach or restaurant you are gone. Our shop got hit hard, water rushed through the glass but everyone got out. Thankfully we are a dive shop so most of our stuff/inventory can be cleaned and dried off;-)
I walked away ok, only lost my phone (new one with same number before). I was pretty happy though I found both my sandals!! Anyway it was a lot more terrifiying and scary then I'm telling but all is well.
Sorting things out now. If you plan on visiting hold off a few months;-) Been in a lot of natural disasters but I'm pretty confident when I say I don't want to be seeing anymore 10 metre waves. Phuket was actually lucky we were so close otherwise things could of been A LOT worse (India/Maldives I think took the brunt of things).
Hopefully things get back to "normal" in a few weeks to a month at least routine wise because the tourists are gone. Thanks for the emails. I'll respond to everyone soon.
If you're standing on a beach and the water starts to recede and you stand there long enough to watch it recede off into the horizon, Natural Selection is about to give you what you deserve for being a moron.
Maybe nuclear bombs set off in the tsunami just as it's approaching shore to disperse it and vaporize the water into the atmosphere?
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This tsunami was 600 miles wide. Does a nuclear bomb consume 600 miles?
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