Posted on 12/30/2004 7:06:00 AM PST by dead
Top photo shows normal shoreline line. 2nd photo shows the receded shoreline and 3rd is one of the return surges.
Might work for normal waves.
Doubt it would work here.
I've never been in a tsunami situation but I've used that tactic with succes in a lot of high surf as well as strong currents. I think those peoples best hope would have been to flatten themselves to the bottom. The current will be weakest near the bottom so their only hope is to try. In so doing, they will avoid being initially swept from their feet, tumbled and rolled. They then propel themselves to the surface where they either go with the flow or repeat the bottom clinging process.
My guess is that most of the fatalities were due to people being pummeled against hard objects, trapped by debris and or killed by debris. In such case, if those people on the beach could have maintained control and survived the initial impact, they would have been ok until the flow carried them onto flooded land areas. Then their danger would have increased dramatically.
The reports I read said they were thirty feet or more. They get bigger as the depth gets shallower. It may only be six feet (I'd say bigger,however) in the first picture and still raise to 30 feet as it came onshore.
The waves radiate outward in all directions from the disturbance and can propagate across entire ocean basins.
I imagine that would demolish any boats/ships in its path...
ping
One way to estimate the height is to take the guy's height in the 3rd pix, assume he is 6 feet, and compare that length to the wave. agreed that the wave is further away and therefore smaller in the picture, it still is 2.5 times the height of the man. That makes the waves AT LEAST 15 feet, and I'm betting double that.
What kind of logic says when the water runs out it is never coming back??
The shock wave at sea, which does not displace water, moves at 500mph
****
IOW, the water molecules do not move across the 1000s of miles of ocean. What reaches land is like the last ball in the desk toy of suspended silver balls swinging out when the first ball is made to hit the second ball. Balls 2,3,4,5 and 6 remain immobile. But ball #7 (the end one) swings high, since there is no ball #8 to take the transfer of energy.
Even the waves in these photos, that people are saying do not appear high, have not reached their max height as there is still a lot of water under the sea level.
Our brains can not really compute a picture for which we have no reference, so we assume that these waves are the 6-10ft high ones that we know from our beach experiences.
Believe me those yachties on that beach knew that they were looking at something they had never seen before. - One solid wave from horizon to horizon. Hardly anyone has ever seen that.
I do not know the topography of the ocean floor, but I understand that places such as Diego Garcia were protected by very deep sea trenches which absorbed the energy in deep water.
Also areas with sharp slopes near the coast, or if there are reefs would help greatly.
Look at the top of the mast in each picture, then the mountain is gone in the last, I think that is the wave , not a mountain.
Good description. So many people don't understand how these waves are different from the big waves on the North Shore of Oahu, for example.
minus tide. Good clammin.
:) cute...
would it have been better if i said "trying to put myself in her bikini"?
The other thing I have noticed about these waves is the incredible mass of water that is involved in the tesunami. It's not just some "wave". What we're seeing here is the front of a hydraulic jump with incredible force and speed.
Those multiple waves involve an increase in height like a staircase. That's why the total increase in the water level was over five meters.
The waves move at 500 mph. And they are not 'breakers' as we have them here in LA, but rather huge, long surges where the water just rises and rises. Water is SO STRONG.
see my above post...
I am still amazed that there were no radio and TV warnings from the governments of the countries that were hardest hit. They knew about the Sumatran earthquake and the tsunami danger, but did not warn the people in coastal areas so as "not to upset the tourist economy." Last night it was alleged that the Australian government told all of their embassies in the region that a tsunami might occur, but the ambassadors were told not to pass this word on to the local governments. Could this be true? If so, those government people should be removed for gross incompetence and possible prosecution. With all of the wondrous communication devices we have, they seemed to have failed, thanks to the stupidity of government people.
Ping that video that was taken at 12:04
Man, what a wave. I would have been running sooner than those people!!!
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