Japan: 38-meter-high tsunami triggered by March 11 quake: survey

Kyodo News ^ | 04/03/11

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38-meter-high tsunami triggered by March 11 quake: survey

TOKYO, April 3, Kyodo

A tsunami that hit a coastal city in Iwate Prefecture after the March 11 massive earthquake is estimated to have reached 37.9 meters in height, a field survey by a researcher at the University of Tokyo showed Sunday.

The tsunami measured in the Taro district in the city of Miyako was higher than the domestic record of 38.2 meters marked in the city of Ofunato in the prefecture in the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Earthquake Tsunami, according to Yoshinobu Tsuji, associate professor at the Earthquake Research Institute at the university.

Tsuji and his team checked the drift displacement from a port in the district and found that lumber from the port had reached the slope of a mountain some 200 meters away from the coast.

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http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82896.html

Latest casualty figures for March 11 quake, tsunami

TOKYO, April 3, Kyodo

The following are the latest casualty figures related to the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern and eastern Japan on March 11, according to the National Police Agency as of 8 p.m. Saturday:

Number of people killed 12,087
Number of people missing 15,552

[GreenAccord]

Let’s just go ahead and call that a 125 foot tall tsunami wave. I’d call that epic. I really though we’d seen the biggest one in our lifetimes after seeing the Indonesian tsunami. Just amazing.

[evets]

The mag 9 Cascadia quake of 1700 caused an Oregon tsunami.

[Jack Hydrazine]

At the rate these 9.0 earthquakes are showing up I expect Seattle to get hit with one in the next few years!

[MichaelP]

Scientists used to think that tsunamis were limited to a certain height, I forget what, but it was far less than 100 ft. I wonder how often an event like this occurs on the planet? every 100 years, 200, 500...1000?

Incredible!

Mike

[listenhillary]

37.9 meters 124.3 feet

[Explorer89]

I find myself stupidly repeating, “38 meters. Wow. 38 METERS!” I remember seeing a 10 meter diving platform at Penn State. It was way higher than I would ever consider climbing. This was nearly FOUR times higher. 38 freaking METERS.

[TStro]

I read an article a few years back that they had determined an ancient tsunami that hit Australia had reached 500 ft. It was believed to have been caused by a landslide on one of the Hawaiian islands.
http://www.rense.com/general20/comingonedayg.htm

[JohnBovenmyer]

Quake caused tsunami height is going to vary based on size and location of the quake and the topography of the target, above and below sea level. This was a 9.0 quake, the largest recorded quake was 9.5 and the theory is they can’t be much larger than that. Landslides into water produce big splashes. I’m not sure they’re technically counted as tsunamis. They can be very high, but IIRC are more localized. One in Alaska, back in 50s or 60s, was documented to reach 1400 feet. It wiped out all the trees that high up! Pictures were shown on History or a similar channel. I believe Japan has a 100m ‘splash’ wave on record from such. The biggest waves probably come from asteroid hits. IIRC the dinosaur killer that hit the Yucatan’s wave carried into Texas.

[Liberty1970]

Yes, the ‘splash zone’ at Spirit Lake at Mt. St. Helens was something like 700 ft. high. Rather impressive, if there had been anyone around to witness it. (There was an elderly fellow named Harry Truman at his lodge on the shore that day, but I expect he didn’t get to see very much before he died.)

[GATOR NAVY]

I can’t see that there would be any kind of limit. The potential wave height depends of both the sea floor topography as the wave approaches and the surface topography where the wave hits. I’d be willing to bet that there was some sort of funneling effect going on here at this town that allowed the water to go higher than if it had hit a broad open stretch of coast.

[justa-hairyape]

There was an NHKWorld story, lost the link, that stated the amount of sea floor that raised was an incredibly large area. Dozens of miles long north to south and a few dozen east to west. We definitely need to rethink Tsunami magnitudes.

[FreeKeys]

Scientists used to think that tsunamis were limited to a certain height, I forget what, but it was far less than 100 ft.

Back in the '90s I saw a program on the Discovery Channel I think it was which said that, the next time the volcano on La Palma Island in the Canaries blows, A 7-mile high (off the ocean floor) section of the island will slide into the Atlantic causing a tsunami ONE THOUSAND FEET HIGH and more than 50 miles from front to back, not only indundating our East Coast, but the ENTIRE peninsula portion of Florida. They even had an animated map demonstrating it. Subsequent showings of the same program, however, eliminated that data and those sequences.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I thought 125 foot tidal waves only happened in disaster movies. How deep was the Red Sea when Moses parted it? This would have looked about the same. It is a wonder there is anything left in central Japan. 125 foot wall of water. Yes folks, that is just about the height of your average 10 story building.

Ten freaking story high rise. Tidal wave. Equal. Yikes.