Posted on 12/30/2004 7:06:00 AM PST by dead
From the picture we know the camera survived, not sure about the photographer.
I'm with you. If you do a google search on this beach, you'll find there are rock formations all over the place. If you look at a map, this appears to be taken at such an angle and with the lens that they are catching either a large formation or the mainland it is attached to. This peninsula kind of bottlenecks and then widens.
I would recommend to anyone who thinks that is water to do a simple search and look at the resort pics and other pictures to see the landscape of the area.
You know of examples?There are claims a British scuba diver was 15 meters down when she was hit and pulled out. Frankly, I suspect that is typical British tabloid exaggeration, but she was likely farther down than a couple feet from the surface. Wherever she actually was, I would agree with you that she had much better odds than if she had been standing knee deep on the beach. She did survive anyway.
The breaking edge of a wave is the only part that has dangerous moving water. Just as moving water has tremendous destructive power, a few feet of still water has amazing insulating qualities.I’m not sure I understand what portion of the waver you are referring to here. (I am assuming you mean a tsunami rather than a regular wind wave.)
Speaking vertically, if you are deep enough, obviously its only the top that’s moving and you’ll be fine. That seems to me to be very remote from anyone standing in the water. I figure you mean horizontal edge, as that is the part that is moving inward and is dangerous, getting hit and then thrust horizontally forward.
If so, your statement still seems a little vague to me. I believe you mean that, while the entire wave is moving, the moving water behind the front edge isn’t dangerous? Is that what you mean? If not, if you mean that only the front edge is moving, that would be plainly wrong. The moving portion of the tsunami is rather long, compared to a wind wave. If the only moving water is the front edge, where does all the rest of the water come from? It isn’t just a front edge that comes piling into those towns. That water has to come from somewhere, and it had to be moving to get there.
So, I assume you mean that only the front edge is dangerous. However, that is also wrong. The tsunami kills many of its victims by banging them up against debris, and the debris is all over the place once it hits the shore (and during the trip back out). Once you get caught in it and dragged along, whether you were hit by the front edge or not, you are very, very likely to run into things, on the way in or the way out. To contend that this moving water isn’t dangerous is wrong. It is very nearly just as dangerous as the front edge.
Anyway, I would agree that if you get far enough down you can get under the tsunami and be (relatively) safe. I just think you need something deep enough to really get down there, and that you are going to be there for awhile. If you’ve only got a couple feet, fine, it’s better than just standing there. I just don’t think its usually going to be enough.
You attacked me and my motives for posting.I attacked your style of posting.
After my first response to you, you suggested I shouldn’t get angry. My “attack” was in response, as I was trying to explain to you why I was annoyed with your posts, and that it was your style that was annoying me. Your motives are your own. On that subject I simply said you probably meant well, but that your posts didn’t come across well, which is hardly a vicious attack on your motives.
Obviously you didn't want to hear what I had to say or you wouldn't have attacked me.You seem to think you have the ability to divine my motives. This, despite the fact that I already corrected you on this. Perhaps you know me better than I know myself. It is very strange to complain that I’m attacking your motives for posting, and then to go ahead and attack me for my motives for posting. Making up my motivation is even stranger.
patent
I honestly have no idea how anybody can look at that hill out there and think it is a wave. It's a hill! It has trees on it! Maybe the resolution of your monitor is off.
Bookmarked.
>>>>I recognized from the first time I looked at the pictures that different lens settings were used. That still doesn't change the fact that the blue shape in the back ground is the tsunami wave approaching.
Redheadtoo,
If you watch the videos of the event, you will see that the waves coming in were not as large or as high as the blue shape in the background. Go watch the videos linked in post 109. They aren't taken from the same place, but if you watch those waves you can see waves that look just like the white frothy things that do tons of damage.
A tsunami as large as that blue shape, that far from land, is much larger than what hit any of the beaches, much less the ones in Thailand. Tsunamis just don't look like that.
Also, trace the top of the blue shape. It has the standard inverted u and v shapes common to hills. Waves don't look like that.
patent
Also check out picture 13 at THIS LINK and it shows the same land mass from the beach. This pics were not taken during the tsunami.
The rock formation on the right side of the first picture on this thread is the same rock formation that can be seen like a big finger in the center/left of this picture. The beach these people were enjoying was to the left of the finger, and to the right of the other rock formation.
The mountains in the first picture above can be clearly seen in the upper right corner of this picture. You can also clearly see the angle that the wave was coming in without being blocked by the hills.
You keep referring to tsunamis as waves when they're actually energy-surges caused by the displacement of the earth's crust. Besides totally different mechanics, the energy transmitted through the ocean by a 9.0 earthquake is several orders of magnatudes greater than the wind-generated waves your basing your advice on.
Would you similarly advise someone to 'duck under' a storm surge? How about a dam burst? A tsunami is much closer to these than a surf wave.
Have you seen any of the videos? Most of the ones I've seen were from Thai resorts, as in these photos. The tsunamis which hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India were much larger. I saw one which was supposedly from Sri Lanka. It showed a 10'+ surge going through a city at probably 15 mph. It ran the entire length of the video. No one was going to be holding their breath under that. And if they were unfortunate enough to be out in the water at the time well... where do you think all the water going through the town came from?
As these photos clearly show tsunamis are not waves but entire bodies of water moving ashore. No one's going to be able to duck under or hold their breath through any appreciably-sized tsunami any better than they could a bursting dam.
Tsunamis are not necessarily these huge 50-foot waves we imagine.
But, they move so fast....500 mph in this case, that even if they are only 10-15 feet high, it doesn't matter.
You are swept under and you drown due to the suction etc.
One diver told his story on the news a bit ago about how he barely survived as the wave rolled over him and he felt like he was being sucked down.
Good clammin' if you have a death wish or a helicopter.
The second wave is the killer one.......notice there are two waves. In other places, people were not really scared by the first wave. It was the second wave...and by then it was too late.
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.
I think 'wall of water' is more appropriate than tidal wave.
An analogy to what a flash flood in the desert does might be helpful.
I'd say the reason we dont have pics/vid of any of the really big waves is that anyone who would have been around to get them is dead
The BBC had an eyewitness account of a man on the 3rd story of a hotel yelling at people to get off of the beach. He could see the waves coming in. He watched in terror as the waves wiped out everything on the beach. He had to flee to the roof of his hotel.
thanks for the pic.
You can see it high res here:
http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html
I pray she is alive, but that seems impossible. Man I hope they had time to say goodbye to eachother, that family that died together.
I still am numb from another thread in which a person joined just to beg us to let him or her know if we have seen a loved one who was vacationing over there.
Not the family of six out on the seabed though. They didn't have a chance.
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