Posted on 12/27/2004 3:42:46 AM PST by roaddog727
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A military spokesman raised the estimated number of deaths in Sri Lanka caused by devastating tidal waves by more than 5,000 people on Monday, raising the death toll from the regional catastrophe to just under 20,000 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
That can be the speed deep at sea, where the wave may only be a couple of inches high, but many miles wide. As it approaches the shallower shore the speed drops sharply but the height spikes in proportion.
Actually the speed of a tidal wave can reach hundreds of mph ONLY in the open ocean.
When they build height and hit land they have slowed down considerably.
FOX is reporting that it was so powerful that it effected the rotation of the earth.
Freaky!
just damn. 9.0. More than an order of magnitude greater than what we have seen here.
I've seen them too and you are right. A foot of water, depending on the speed can knock you off your feet and sweep you away. It's very deceptive.
Anybody know where to look for info on path of wave(s)and time line info? Particularly interested in knowing if Bali in is in any danger in days or weeks ahead.
We have been worried about Diego Garcia, where so many of our service people are stationed, including a good friend of ours. Just got email from him saying that, although they were in the direct path of the tsunamai, they were not affected due to underwater conditions such as a very deep slope. Thank God for that!
Rush is on vacation this week. Roger Hedgecock and somebody else subbing for him.
" I can't understand how a 20 foot wave can cause this much loss of life and property. Is the wave actually much bigger"
It's not just the amplitude (how high) but the duration (how wide or how thick) the wave is that determines it's destructive power. Wind driven waves can be 20 ft. high but have a relatively narrow duration of only 20 to 30 ft. These waves obviously wouldn't have the tremendous mass of a wave 20 ft. high but a mile or two in duration like a tsunami might have.
Imagine, not a small wave that you can see has a face and a back, but a wave so massive that the entire ocean suddenly rises twenty feet, submerging everything on land less than twenty feet above sea level. That is a tsunami.
I just got a call from a Korean friend of mine. George Bush is being criticized for his saying that we are planning to send aid.
--Why is the US so quick to go to war, but is just planning on sending aid to these victims?--
Yep...that's the question I got from her.
Ever been close to a tornado?
I once was. It's the missiles that were the problem. As the wind picked up, rocks were flying like bullets, and they hurt like hell. The strange thing is that the bigger rocks were lower to the ground, so just getting on the ground subjected your head to the biggest hits. You had to find a depression or some cover...and really ****ing fast!!
A tsunami would be carrying all sorts of water-borne missiles, like a flash flood. I've seen one of those too.....a wall of logs and boulders. You see something like that twenty feet high and wide as your vision allows and you know you're dead.
That dratted Bush!! If he'd only signed the Kyoto Treaty none of this would've happened! {extreme sarcasm}
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