Tsunami report from Hawaii

[khl]

Stayed up all night waiting and watching the reports, listening to the sirens go off every hour. Our place is just out of the evacuation zone, so we didn't need to leave our house as did others. Only minor damage here and there across the islands. Nothing bad at all, really. Here's the latest: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/bull ... 89823.html

Japan, of course, is another story.

[MTGuru]

Thanks for the report, Keith. Yes, it looks like you dodged the bullet. Some damage along the California coast, but only a minor swell this morning here in San Diego.

[Nanohedron]

I was watching the news last nite on NHK. Some of those Japanese tsunami were estimated at 7 meter height, with 10-meter-high ones predicted yet to come. Incredible live jaw-dropping views from choppers, of a monster juggernaut of blackened water roiling with inestimable tons of debris (some of it in flames, no less) devouring the land and powering forth with no seeming end in sight. The sheer scale of its magnitude only really hit home when I noticed the tiny-as-mites cars trying to get out of the way.

[Redwolf]

Thanks for the report, Keith. Yes, it looks like you dodged the bullet. Some damage along the California coast, but only a minor swell this morning here in San Diego.

The Santa Cruz small craft harbor got hit pretty badly. They're estimating $15 million in damages, currently. But again, nothing to what the people of Japan are going through, and no one injured or killed, thank God.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_17589483

Redwolf

[Nanohedron]

Thanks for the report, Keith. Yes, it looks like you dodged the bullet. Some damage along the California coast, but only a minor swell this morning here in San Diego.

The Santa Cruz small craft harbor got hit pretty badly. They're estimating $15 million in damages, currently. But again, nothing to what the people of Japan are going through, and no one injured or killed, thank God.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_17589483

Redwolf

I was very much wondering about this. The NHK report projections included the Pacific side of practically everything from Kamchatka all the way down to the Philippines; Oceania in total was pretty well implied; and Mexico down to Chile. None of the US/Canadian Pacific coast was indicated, though. While I couldn't out of common sense accept that as any more than an omission, I thought it odd nonetheless.

Then again, the reporters - and no doubt everyone else - were pretty stressed out.

[s1m0n]

Some parts of BC evacuated, specifically the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands / Haida Gwaii, but the wave when it got here was less than a foot high. Port Alberni, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, was hit hard by a tsunami in 69. The harbour's at the end of a narrow fjord which can focus and magnify a wave, but it didn't this time.

Vancouver is right on the water, but it's well-sheltered behind Vancouver Island and the gulf islands. Tsunamis aren't expected to affect the Georgia Strait much.

[talasiga]

yes, we live by the sea here and were on alert at about the time I noticed that benhall.1 had been appointed mopderator.

Wren rang and asked my daughter to facebook alert her father-in-law on the island of Hawaii but he said that he is not a C&F member. My ex wife rang me from England very concerned and I settled her down by saying that we have friends in the hills who play recorders rather than ITM.

I seriously cogitated which instruments, photos and bulk foods I would ensure would be part of my escape pack. But then we got notice that our coast is not under threat but Fiji may be a little bit - I have relatives there but they live in high country.

In any case I won't be swimming in the lagoon today.

[material in italics is untrue, silly and syptomatic of my escapist tendency]

[Redwolf]

Oh, dear God. They're looking at a core meltdown:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[MTGuru]

I was very much wondering about this. The NHK report projections included the Pacific side of practically everything from Kamchatka all the way down to the Philippines; Oceania in total was pretty well implied; and Mexico down to Chile. None of the US/Canadian Pacific coast was indicated, though. While I couldn't out of common sense accept that as any more than an omission, I thought it odd nonetheless.

It's because there are two different reporting systems: Pacific Region; and West Coast and Alaska (including Canada). It sounds like NHK was reporting the one and not the other. This distinction threw me, too, the first time I needed to monitor an approaching tsunami.

Here are the respective NOAA links:

Pacific Region: http://ptwc.weather.gov/
West Coast: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/

[Mr.Gumby]

Energy Map of the Tsunami as it travelled:



And a video showing the spread of the tsunami across the ocean from the same source.

[Denny]

nice map!

University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass has a blog. http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/ He talked about the tsunami yesterday.

[Redwolf]

I can see now why they used to call them "tidal waves." If you didn't know that this had been caused by a massive earthquake 5,000 miles away (or that the tides are caused by gravitational pull), it would be easy to assume that what we saw here in Santa Cruz yesterday was a freakish tidal phenomenon.

Redwolf

[Nanohedron]

Oh, dear God. They're looking at a core meltdown:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Yeah, it's looking very bad indeed; looks like chance has pulled out all the stops. It's bad enough for the survivors that a disaster like this happened in winter weather.

[Redwolf]

Oh, dear God. They're looking at a core meltdown:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Yeah, it's looking very bad indeed; looks like chance has pulled out all the stops. It's bad enough for the survivors that a disaster like this happened in winter weather.

It's just unimaginable. By itself, an 8.9 earthquake would be a terrible disaster. An 8.9 followed by a tsunami is beyond tragic. But a nuclear catastrophe on top of all that...dear God.

Probably the one hopeful thing is that there are few nations out there as well-prepared for what seismic upheaval can do as Japan.

Redwolf

[Nanohedron]

Has anyone heard from our Japan-based friends?