‘The Sea Was 30 Metres High. Everybody Ran’ [Coastal Town Now "Giant Scrapyard"]

London Times ^ | March 01, 2010 | Dom Phillips

[Steelfish]

March 2, 2010 ‘The Sea Was 30 Metres High. Everybody Ran’ Dom Phillips, Constitución

A mother and daughter are reduced to tears after looters set fire to a supermarket near their home in Constitución. When the earthquake struck the dirt-poor coastal town of Constitución, José Carrasco was sleeping in the cab of his truck by the beach.

“It was really strong, shaking,” he said. Forty-five minutes later he saw the first tsunami wave coming towards him. “The sea came and covered everything. It was 30 metres high. There were two waves. When we saw the sea coming in, everybody ran. I climbed up the hill.”

The smell of death hung yesterday over this fishing town, battered not just by the earthquake but by the tsunami that came in its wake and claimed hundreds of lives. Much of it lay in ruins. Debris from the waves covered the beach and the tiny port. Mr Carrasco’s blue truck was a tangle of bent metal, surrounded by the remains of battered cars, their windows shattered.

A yellow food stall was stuck on top of the shell of a van on a pile of broken timber. Electricity pylons were wrapped around giant palm trees torn from their roots. Bulldozers had begun shoving the debris — piles of broken metal, bits of cars, trucks, railings, wood and palm fronds. Constitución now resembles a giant scrapyard.

[21twelve]

30 meters!!??

That seems a tad high IIRC for an earthquake - but just a tad (about 60 feet or 20 meters is the highest I think). A landslide going into the water can be MUCH larger though - hundred of feet tall.

But, if it was a true tsunami and so large - then why only a few feet, if that, in other coastal areas?

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Fascinating.

[Paladin2]

Depends on the geometry of the beach/harbor and the angle of the approaching wave(s).

[dr_lew]

This town is very near the epicenter. Also, I don’t think the wave front would have to be even half that high in order for the surge to wash up onto areas at 30 meters elevation, just like surf will run up on the beach. I think it would be a fair claim that “the sea was 30 meters high” if you watched this happen.

[stlnative]

Carolina Olivares, 21, showed how the waves shattered windows in the concrete-floored house she shares with her family, 30 metres above the sea.

[Publius6961]

José Carrasco was sleeping in the cab of his truck by the beach....
“...The sea came and covered everything. It was 30 metres high."

I guarantee that that wave was not 30 meters high.
I know I will be accused of being insensitive and , worse, a "teabagger," but as a retired surveyor and engineer, I know first hand how difficult it is under calm ordinary circumstances, to estimate distances, and worse yet, heights, never mind under traumatic circumstances.

A guy sleeping in his truck by the beach? The odds of his being in the ballpark are essentially zero.

[Steve Van Doorn]

i am looking at google map there were a lot of 5.0 and a 6.0 quake right off the coast of the town of Constitución. You can see there is a large sea wall that is in that area that could have broken lose underwater.

[21twelve]

Ah - a “run up” that hit her house at 30 meters elevation. That makes more sense. The “run ups” can extend far inland too obviously. After Krakatoa went there was a large ship found over a mile inland IIRC.

The mechanics of even the largest earthquakes limit the wave height to less than 70 feet or so. It has to do with how much the sea-floor has been raised. Plus the local conditions where the wave arrives. A large landslide (or marine slide) can cause tsunamis of hundreds of feet though.

I just saw on the news where some reporter said the wave was 50-foot tall in Conception. That makes more sense. And calling it a wave is a misnomer I think, makes folks think of a wave that comes and goes at the beach. This wave just keeps coming and coming and coming. And a few more afterwards as well.