That's interesting! 3-4 foot waves are common on the ocean, so I would never have suspected that the tsunami that caused this much devastation would have a wave height that small.
I was envisioning these 50 feet walls of water....
well if you think about it, water is one of the most powerful forces on Earth.
It isnt the height, its the momentum of such an event....
These waves had been going for hundreds of miles...which was just building up the force higher and higher......
Caption says first of six.Perhaps 2-6 were bigger.
Problem is, the tsunami wave just keeps coming. Regular waves receed after a few seconds.
The record of the century was 1700 ft tall in an Alaska Bay directly accross from a earthquake induced mountain collapse. It scoured the opposite side of the bay to that height removing a forest, so they know its actual height.
The well known one at Hilo came ashore as 30 feet high as I recall the stories.
Each is different based on the volume of water displaced and the sea-bed rise where it comes ashore.
It's not the height of the wave, it's the velocity. They travel at incredible speeds.
They build as they get closer to shore. It effectively will raise the ocean level and cause a storm surge similar to a hurricane. Even if it stays 6-10 feet a wall of water 6-10 foot high could ruin your day.
That was the first wave.The second was alot higher,you can see it getting ready to swamp those fairly large sail boats.It was the second larger wave that did most of the death and destruction.
I remember my first experience with the ocean (I'm from Wisconsin).
I ran into the surf (maybe 3 or 4 foot waves). I'm about 400 pounds, the first wave picked me up and slammed me down, thank you very much.
My wife has a picture and thinks it was funny, but I got some skin left in the sand.
I have a lot more respect for the ocean.
The wall of water was described as 30 feet tall. That's water in the background
From what I understand it wasn't the force of the water that did damage, it was simply a rise in the water level of about 15 feet which very quickly flooded the area and carried things with it. If you had on a life jacket you would likely have survived the tsunami if you didn't get caught under something.
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.
"That's interesting! 3-4 foot waves are common on the ocean, so I would never have suspected that the tsunami that caused this much devastation would have a wave height that small."
The difference is the amount of water behind them. Most waves are only a few feet thick. Tsunamis can be miles thick. Imagine the whole ocean suddenly rising ten feet and burying the land.
Well, when it gets pulled outward to see to rise up, it springs back really fast. They are not ordinary waves, which is why they kill and your normal big waves at the beach don't.
Also, after the wave passes, the water is disturbed for a long time....look at some of digital globe's sat pics. The water is churning and choppy even after the tsunami recedes.
it looks like this is the FIRST wave ... in first-hand accounts, it sounds like the first wave was bad, but the second was the killer ... as high as 20-30 feet. And at that speed (some said high as 500 mph), took pretty much everything in its path.
The wave height was different at various locations.
Places were just wiped clean - photo's from sat - just incredible.
IMHO, most of the video / pics you see on the web do not do justice to what actually happened - they look lame. But that is only one location.