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Watch out America...a tsunami is coming
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by Arlos » Fri May 19, 2006 1:13 pm
Actually, Tsunamis not hitting the US frequently has one notable exception: Hawaii has been hit several times. If you were to say Continental US, you'd be right, but Hawaii's way out there in the middle of the Pacific, so any time something in Japan or elsewhere on the Pacific Ring of Fire goes, it gets nailed. Only reason it didn't in the Indonesian Tsunami is because of the location.
Take a look at the wave animation: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/video/tsun ... ia2004.mov
And here's another one, showing the waves across the whole planet:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/video/tsun ... on2004.mov
You can see the main pulse of the wave hit the malaysian peninsula and just die, as it bounces around in the narrow straits, so it never went east across the Pacific much. You can also see Sri Lanka and India just get hammered, and the rest of that initial wave race across the sea, get slowed down by big underwater sea mounts, before slamming into Africa.
Basically, if the Cascadia fault goes, anything in Oregon anywhere near the coast is going to be just gone. Seattle might make it, depending on what happens with the waves as they hit Puget Sound. San Francisco will get swamped, as will LA & San Diego, but a lot of the bay area is protected by coastal mountains, and the opening to the Bay is REALLY narrow, so we'll probably be OK, depending on how much comes directly over SF itself. Then, a couple hours later, Hawaii's basically fucked, and then Japan's next in line.
Last time it went, in 1700, some monks in Japan actually recorded the wave that hit them, and noted it was much larger than even normal Tsunami, and it surprsied them, because there was no earthquake before it. There's also a big region of dead forests in oregon that mark how far it went inland last time (a longass way).
One reason the Cascadia fault especially worries geologists is because of how quiet it is. You look at nearly any other subduction zone, and you can see tons and tons of small-medium earthquakes, many of them deep deep underground, following the plate boundries as one slides under the other. This is actually a good thing, as it shows the plates are moving, and not building up that much stress. Cascadia however, is dead silent. There's functionally no earthquake activity there at all, yet we know it's a geologically active area. This means, for the last 300 years, the entire area has been building up energy, as there's been no small events to bleed off some of the pressure. So, when it goes, it's going to go all at once, and it's going to be HUGE, easily 9+, which is just as large as the one in Indonesia (and would easily make top-10 largest recorded, ever.)
-Arlos
Take a look at the wave animation: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/video/tsun ... ia2004.mov
And here's another one, showing the waves across the whole planet:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/video/tsun ... on2004.mov
You can see the main pulse of the wave hit the malaysian peninsula and just die, as it bounces around in the narrow straits, so it never went east across the Pacific much. You can also see Sri Lanka and India just get hammered, and the rest of that initial wave race across the sea, get slowed down by big underwater sea mounts, before slamming into Africa.
Basically, if the Cascadia fault goes, anything in Oregon anywhere near the coast is going to be just gone. Seattle might make it, depending on what happens with the waves as they hit Puget Sound. San Francisco will get swamped, as will LA & San Diego, but a lot of the bay area is protected by coastal mountains, and the opening to the Bay is REALLY narrow, so we'll probably be OK, depending on how much comes directly over SF itself. Then, a couple hours later, Hawaii's basically fucked, and then Japan's next in line.
Last time it went, in 1700, some monks in Japan actually recorded the wave that hit them, and noted it was much larger than even normal Tsunami, and it surprsied them, because there was no earthquake before it. There's also a big region of dead forests in oregon that mark how far it went inland last time (a longass way).
One reason the Cascadia fault especially worries geologists is because of how quiet it is. You look at nearly any other subduction zone, and you can see tons and tons of small-medium earthquakes, many of them deep deep underground, following the plate boundries as one slides under the other. This is actually a good thing, as it shows the plates are moving, and not building up that much stress. Cascadia however, is dead silent. There's functionally no earthquake activity there at all, yet we know it's a geologically active area. This means, for the last 300 years, the entire area has been building up energy, as there's been no small events to bleed off some of the pressure. So, when it goes, it's going to go all at once, and it's going to be HUGE, easily 9+, which is just as large as the one in Indonesia (and would easily make top-10 largest recorded, ever.)
-Arlos
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by Gidan » Fri May 19, 2006 2:08 pm
I remember watching something on the on in 1700 with the monks and the dead section in Oregon. Was an interesting show.
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