[topher]

I think we need a thread on Diego Garcia so folks with relatives there or possibly there do not have heart attacks.

Please use this thread for Diego Garcia info.

And since Diego Garcia is atop a volcano, I don't want anyone in the Pentagon to blow their stacks over this thread -- so don't post anything that might hurt the US Military or Civilians in that area... Please!!!

[topher]

And yes, the Diego Garcia Tire Shop will open on Tuesday -- joke from another thread...

[VOA]

I heard Capt. Dale Dye (Ret, USMC) on his radio show last night (www.kfi640.com).
The good captain said that his contacts said there was some flooding and minor damage
to some building...no harm to people.

[topher]

Ping!

[Strategerist]

Being in deep water actually increases, not decreases, tsunami risk. Hawaii, Japan, etc. typically have steeply sloping sea bottom just offshore to deep water.

So that's not the reason there wasn't much effect at DG. It's possible the size of the fringing reef shallows was so large the tsunami was broken up.

[ProudVet77]

Had sent several emails to people on Diego Garcia, received this back last night from the webmaster at the Support Activities website:

Thanks for your concern, fortunately for us - we are all doing well. We just feel sorry for the number of lives lost during the recent event in that part of the world.
Many thanks again..

[anymouse]

I was wondering if DG would suffer bad damage or not. I thought it was pretty flat and not much is very far above sea level.

I'm sure that once the sub-sea grids started showing off-the-chart seismic readings (and satellite ocean surface measurements), the Navy alerted every ship and base in the Indian ocean to batten down the hatches immediately. (Remember that one way to track subs is by monitoring unusual changes in sub-sea seismic activity and sea surface changes.)

[topher]

There is a followup at this point:

Deigo Garcia military base unaffected by tsunamis

This is an article by ABC News Australia.

Key lines are:

Diego Garcia, a British territory about 1,500 kilometres south of India, hosts about 3,200 US military personnel and civilian contractors and many US long-range bombers and Navy ships.

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for US Pacific Command in Hawaii told the [Washtington Post] newspaper the US base was apparently safe.

"There are no reports of any damage there," Lt Col Bigelow said.

The only problem is that it sounds like the tsunami or tsunamis may have hit there.

The terminology of apparently safe and the quote of the Lt Col of "no reports of any damage" is not the same as coming flat out and saying: the base was hit by a tsunami, but there was no damage and no problems from it. It is just a more definitive statement and doesn't sound wishy-washy.

I wish the military would say flat out -- "The tsunami hit Diego Garcia. There was no damage and no casulties and no people unaccounted for."

I have no doubt the military commanders would sortie aircraft and ships in a very timely manner.

More a question of getting all personnel on ships/aircraft that bothers me.

On the other hand, I ran across may obtuse military document on the meterology stuff on the island, and some of that stuff is scattered all over the island. So might other military stuff -- so it might take a couple of days to check all the gear.

[Rebelbase]

Everything you always wanted to know about Diego Garcia but were afraid to ask (well, almost everything):

http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/links.html

[topher]

The website:

http://www.asc-india.org/gq/krakatoa.htm

has info on Diego Garcia but also on the 1883 Tsunami created by the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa.

In the case of the Tsunami by one of the most powerful natural explosions in the last 200 years, there was a warship that was pushed 10 kilometers inland.

It is an interesting website to read.

The weird part:

Krakatoa blew up in 1883, Diego Garcia had its earthquake in 1983 [and is a former volcano]. Additionally, Krakatoa is in the area where the 9.0 earthquake went off in mid-ocean last weekend.

So maybe Krakatoa tales may be pertinent to current events -- the explosion of Krakatoa was heard in Diego Garcia -- which was only 3647 kilometres away. The people of Diego Garcia thought a ship was in distress, and went to various points of the island to scan the horizon. This was back in 1883 -- before the Marconi instrument -- radio. The Titanic was the first to use the Marconi instrument with the then new SOS code -- though the Marconi device was in service for a while when the Titanic went down...

Note that 3647 kilometres is more than 2000 miles away...

[topher]

Anybody know if this was a double Tsunami event.

There was a 7.5 quake very close to the 9.0 less then 4 hours later...

[topher]

From NBC Channel 5 of Dallas/Fort Worth:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/4025469/detail.html
[The following is an excerpt about Diego Garcia]

A Navy official said three P-3 Orion aircraft have been deployed to Thailand from Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean. The aircraft are geared for survey work. The spokesman said they don't engage directly in search and rescue operations, but they are an invaluable resource for such missions. Their crews can spot people stranded in the tidal wave area and can even drop life rafts to them.