The Earthquake Thread

Wow, that's absolutely ridiculous if in less than half a year we already have another major natural disaster to hit that tops the previous by a significant amount.

Has there been word on how bad it actually is?
 
my mom is in hawaii and I just called her. i hope the tsuami won't hit Oahu.

They will get something, they sounded the alarms already in Hawaii....but it will be another 5 hours or so before anything hits. It will be much smaller being it is far from the epicenter.
 
Wow, that's absolutely ridiculous if in less than half a year we already have another major natural disaster to hit that tops the previous by a significant amount.

Has there been word on how bad it actually is?


122 dead so far.....but I don't think it is going to be anything on the level of Haiti. Mainly because their main government wasn't destroyed like in Haiti.
 
Tsunamis can cover thousands of miles in a few short hours without losing much energy. They can literally travel at a couple hundred miles per hour in the open ocean.


Tsunami's run about 500 mph, the speed of an airplane.
 
They will get something, they sounded the alarms already in Hawaii....but it will be another 5 hours or so before anything hits. It will be much smaller being it is far from the epicenter.

yup, ETA on any Tsunami activity in the Islands will be about 4:15 EST.
 
CNN is showing a great graphic on how a quake results in a tsunami, and how it can travel as far as it does.
 
Yeah it will, it will not be anything that shouldn't be watched closely, but as it travels across the ocean, yes, it will lessen in power. How much, that is the question....but it will not be at the power that it would be at the epicenter.

The wave will reach Hawaii around 11:00, and the waves will run anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour apart, but nothing like the waves that would hit near the epicenter.
 
That makes it 3 times I've learned that now. It's getting old. :cmad:

Chill out....get mad about something important.

You should be the teacher that states the same thing 8x a day.....
 
Yeah it will, it will not be anything that shouldn't be watched closely, but as it travels across the ocean, yes, it will lessen in power. How much, that is the question....but it will not be at the power that it would be at the epicenter.

The wave will reach Hawaii around 11:00, and the waves will run anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour apart, but nothing like the waves that would hit near the epicenter.
What are you basing this on? You initially made it sound like it would be MUCH less powerful.

While it's pretty obvious that the wave MUST lose energy as it travels, part of the amazing thing about waves is the ability to conserve said energy over vast distances. It takes very, very little energy for that wave to propagate.

I simply take issue with the idea that it will be "much" less powerful.

Chill out....get mad about something important.
Damn. We need to replace her humor module. :csad:
 
Oh, and let me be more specific.....the 11:00 a.m. hour up there is their time, that would be 4:00 p.m. Eastern time today.

The mayor is saying that Oahu could be spared, but not totally sure. The waves will be several feet from what they can tell, and smaller for some of the other islands. The waves that will hit Hawaii will probably be somewhere between 5 and 7 feet. But, there will be several.
 
What are you basing this on? .

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and my 20 years of teaching it....

Hilo is probably more scared at this point than most......since they are the ones that have been hit the hardest by these Tsunami's before....

Brian Shiro of the Pacific Tsuanmi Warning Center said experts were possibly expecting 3 to 5 or 6 feet tsunami waves in Hawaii, depending on the location. "It'll be worse in the harbors and bays," he said.
"Most places, it's not going to be huge."
 
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"Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said he didn't know how big the waves will be, but he expected them to be the largest to hit Hawaii since 1964."


I'll bet a few crazy surfers are going to try to ride the tsunami.

Typical tsunami has a huge wave length but low amplitude, meaning it's not typically a big huge tidal wave, the water just rushed up onto the beach and keeps coming. In fact if u could be on a boat out in the ocean and have one go under you and not even know it
 
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and my 20 years of teaching it....
So can you somehow give me a more concrete idea of this energy loss? Because the energy loss of a wave is inversely proportional to its wavelength. Tsunamis have massive wavelengths.

My point is that distance makes little difference in the energy and propagation of these waves.
 
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So can you somehow give me a more concrete idea of this energy loss? Because the energy loss of a wave is inversely proportional to its wavelength. Tsunamis have massive wavelengths.

My point is that distance makes little difference in the energy and propagation of these waves.

It depends the on how deep the ocean is that it is traveling over....it will slow down as it hits more shallow water.

But according to the Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, this will be nothing near the 1960 Tsunami, and in some areas of Hawaii, they may actually get missed completely, which would be good....but hell this is mother nature, with an 8.8 earthquake and 6,700 miles to travel, some could be as large as 12 feet for islands in between Chile and Hawaii.


***disclaimer*** and its a message board, not a face to face meeting, so facial disclaimers are non-existent.

As far as Hawaii, it looks like they are getting ready, and doing a good job of warning people. The areas where the sirens do not exist, or were faint, they are now going door to door. So Hawaii looks like its ready....they are doing a good job.

My fear are those crazy surfers....
 
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At 5:30am this morning... we had a 6.9 hit off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. I felt my whole building shaking for at least 1 minute. That may not seem like a long time... but it sure did feel like forever when everything is falling apart in front of you.
 
It depends the on how deep the ocean is that it is traveling over....it will slow down as it hits more shallow water.
That doesn't affect the rate of energy loss. All tsunamis that hit land invariably come to shallow water.
 
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I just heard about this...unbelievable. :csad:
 
That doesn't affect the rate of energy loss. All tsunamis that hit land invariably come to shallow water (that's how the waves rapidly increase in height).

True...

I am simply going by the facts that it was an 8.8 earthquake, and the Warning Center is saying that these waves are relatively mild in energy. Nothing like the 1960 earthquake that I believe was 9.5. They believe that most waves will be on average about 3 feet high, since the waves at the epicenter the highest was 8 feet.

Do I know the equation that they use? no...
 
True...

I am simply going by the facts that it was an 8.8 earthquake, and the Warning Center is saying that these waves are relatively mild in energy. Nothing like the 1960 earthquake that I believe was 9.5. They believe that most waves will be on average about 3 feet high, since the waves at the epicenter the highest was 8 feet.
Fair enough.
 
BUT, LET ME SAY THAT......EVEN A 3FT WAVE WITH SPEED IS A SUCKER OF A WAVE. It's certainly not something to play around with.....
 
I've actually been to Chile twice. Have tons of family friends/work associates in the capital, so this news hit a lot closer to home than the whole Haiti ordeal. Luckily we've been able to come in contact with some of the people there and they all seem to be fine.
 
I've actually been to Chile twice. Have tons of family friends/work associates in the capital, so this news hit a lot closer to home than the whole Haiti ordeal. Luckily we've been able to come in contact with some of the people there and they all seem to be fine.

Well, an earthquake is horrible in any country. Unfortunately this one hit the 2nd largest, and poorest city. But, even with that, the infrastructure is much stronger than that of Haiti, so I guess that is a positive. AND, at least first responders are able to move in much quicker, since they were not all devastated in the area.

It is good to hear that your people are ok.
 

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