Any Pictures Video of Actual Tsunami?

[Rick Nebiolo]

I was scanning some news photos of the recent earthquake generated tsunami and all the pictures I've found are of the aftermath.

Are there any online pictures/video of this or any other tsunami(s) as it strikes the beach or shore? I assume such a picture would have to be taken from an overlook above and to the side.

~ Rick

[ClaytonN]

I was hoping to see some pics too. If anyone finds any please post...

[scalf]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif /images/graemlins/diamond.gif.

rick..

i would add that it would be quite an overlook; or way off to the side...;

at least if it were my photos

gl

happy ny rick

gl

/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /images/graemlins/grin.gif /images/graemlins/cool.gif /images/graemlins/diamond.gifw

[ThaSaltCracka]

http://www.foxnews.com/photo_essay/photoessay_251_images/122704_quake_tsunami.jpg

[randomchamp]

Phi Phi Island
http://www.newsday.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2004-12/15617665.jpg

[andyfox]

Anyone know? They must hit at incredible speeds I would think.

Having been through our L.A. earthquake in 1994, which was a 6.6 (?), I can't even imagine what a 9.0 must be like.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I believe it is either 300 mph or its 600 mph.

edit: I have no idea.
this may help
http://nees.orst.edu/IT/info/Questions1.htm

additional edit:
As the tsunami crosses the deep ocean, its length from crest to crest may be a hundred miles or more, and its height from crest to trough will only be a few feet or less. They can not be felt aboard ships nor can they be seen from the air in the open ocean. In the deepest oceans, the waves will reach speeds exceeding 600 miles per hour (970 km/hr). When the tsunami enters the shoaling water of coastlines in its path, the velocity of its waves diminishes and the wave height increases. It is in these shallow waters that a large tsunami can crest to heights exceeding 100 feet (30 m) and strike with devastating force.

http://www.wcatwc.gov/physics.htm

[bugstud]

it would be tough to find a shore video that survived, right...you have to see a behiind shot or above shot

[mojorisin24]

I read that the tidal waves were up to 40 feet high and moving at speeds close to 500 mph...

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2004/122004/quake

[ThaSaltCracka]

yeah it was moving 500 mph near the epicenter. By the time it was close to shore, I bet it was closer to 30-40 mph.

[andyfox]

Here's what I found on excite.com:

Walls of water sped away from the quake's epicenter at more than 500 mph before crashing into the region's shorelines, sweeping people and fishing villages out to sea.

The tsunamis came without warning. Witnesses said sea waters at first retreated far out into the ocean, only to return at a vicious pace. Some regions reported a crashing wall of water 20 feet high.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was - a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said Katri Seppanen, who was in Thailand, on Phuket island's popular Patong beach.

[Porcupine]

I haven't been able to get the video to work, but there is also a slideshow on the same page.

Video on this page shows Tsunami Hitting Beach (http://www.nbc10.com/news/4026938/detail.html)



Tsunami hitting beach - slide show (http://www.nbc10.com/slideshow/news/4026806/detail.html)

[TylerD]

This BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4128951.stm#) article has a video clip.

[Popinjay]

Direct Video Link (http://www.jnetty.com/file/n_itndeadlywaves_041227.asf)

[sfer]

The NYTimes online has a pop-up graphic that has concentric rings showing how long it took for waves to reach them.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't been able to get the video to work, but there is also a slideshow on the same page.

Video on this page shows Tsunami Hitting Beach (http://www.nbc10.com/news/4026938/detail.html)

Tsunami hitting beach - slide show (http://www.nbc10.com/slideshow/news/4026806/detail.html)

[/ QUOTE ]

It's funny, I imagined much bigger waves. Too me these waves look like fun. With 24,000 people dead I kind of thought the waves would of travelled much farther inland. I guess this just shows it doesn't take much. Was this video the worst areas?

BTW- I realize if this happens across 9 countries it is going to be very easy for 24,000 to die. I just expected bigger. I wonder what percentage of the dead were on the beach at the time the tsunami hit.

[ThaSaltCracka]

those videos are from Thailand. Sri Lanka got hit the hardest.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The NYTimes online has a pop-up graphic that has concentric rings showing how long it took for waves to reach them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just got home and haven't had time to see/read all the coverage but saw the clip posted elsewhere in the thread and the NY Times graphic of the amount of time it took for the waves to reach the far shores.

What puzzles me is that locations hours from the epicenter seemed not to be prepared. The speed of the wave could have been estimated given the epicenter was known and there was already significant damage one hour out. For instance, Sri Lanka should have had two hours warning. The wave(s) reached the East coast of Africa about five or six hours later.

Can anyone fill me in here?

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

Great links. Thanks!

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
I read that the tidal waves were up to 40 feet high and moving at speeds close to 500 mph...

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2004/122004/quake

[/ QUOTE ]

From what I've read in the other links in mid ocean the waves (usually a series of several waves) aren't that high (generally a few feet) but they travel very fast (as fast as a jet airliner) and the distance from crest to crest can be hundreds of miles. As it approaches shore it slows down (but is still faster than wind driven waves) and builds in height.

Anyway, check some of the links elswhere in the thread. Scary stuff.

~ Rick

[sfer]

Ran across this: Some surfer forum. (http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=643317)

[ThaSaltCracka]

http://img84.exs.cx/img84/8669/tsunami72fb.jpg
damn!!!!!!

That looks like its close to 30 ft deep.

[sfer]

The discussion after the photos is interesting too. Apparently it comes in as a big surge rather than a big wave. And before, the ocean recedes several hundred meters.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
The discussion after the photos is interesting too. Apparently it comes in as a big surge rather than a big wave. And before, the ocean recedes several hundred meters.

[/ QUOTE ]yeah, I knew about the ocean receding. A huge surge, eh, no wave at all? Maybe it depends on the shorline?

[andyfox]

I also heard one guy say there was an unusual, loud hissing noise when the ocean receded, just before the wall of water hit. I heard this noise once too, just before our biggest aftershock in L.A. in 1994. We were outside on a hilltop when we saw a wave come through the ground and the sound was a high-pitched hum of some type. I remember looking at my wife thinking what the hell is that.

[ThaSaltCracka]

did you ask her if she farted?

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
A huge surge, eh, no wave at all? Maybe it depends on the shorline?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/coastal-wave.gif

[ThaSaltCracka]

thats what I thought, thanks Wacki. IIRC, the tsunami they had up in Alaska in the early 50's was huge.

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]

What puzzles me is that locations hours from the epicenter seemed not to be prepared. The speed of the wave could have been estimated given the epicenter was known and there was already significant damage one hour out. For instance, Sri Lanka should have had two hours warning. The wave(s) reached the East coast of Africa about five or six hours later.

Can anyone fill me in here?



[/ QUOTE ]

Rick... Just going by what I heard on the news, there was no undersea monitoring equipment to catch the quake. Apparently the U.S. government has such equipment off the west coast of the U.S., but not off the east coast (not really relevant to this discussion perhaps).

I think it amounts to the fact that no monitoring equipment picked up the quake. And if it did, the information dissemination was poor.

That said, the difference in infrastructure in Sri Lanka, Malayasia, etc., is very different... Though I don't know for sure, I'd suspect the same thing occuring on the west coast of the U.S., with hypothetically the same warning (none), would result in far fewer casulties. Like I said, I'm guessing, but I think a difference in infrastructure, emergency response and the like would create a huge difference.

I mean, compare the results of mid-sized earthquakes on rural parts of the world and California.

As for the wave, I had thought it would be larger also -- from descriptions, I was thinking the kind of thing you could see vetter via satellite images. Shows what I know...

ElSapo

[sfer]

Dude, I just noticed your avatar. All this time I thought it was an elephant. I'm dumb.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Dude, I just noticed your avatar. All this time I thought it was an elephant. I'm dumb.

[/ QUOTE ]for the longest time I thought it was some sort of horned mask. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[wacki]

How do you confuse that with an elephant? What part of the elephant are you looking at?

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Apparently the U.S. government has such equipment off the west coast of the U.S.,

[/ QUOTE ] I believe Japan has equipment as well. I think part of the problem is, earthquakes are less common in that area. IIRC, a lot of the geological activity in that area is usually volcanic.

[sfer]

Glance at it out of the corner of your eye and it looks like two big tusks.

[liquidboss]

Any more video out there? I've found a few but it seems with all the tourists a lot of cameras would have been rolling.

It is horrifing to think of people running forward when they see the ocean recede like that. I wonder how many actually knew they were sealing their fate by doing so...

[ClaytonN]

The best tsunami video yet (http://media.militaryphotos.net/tsunami/tsunami_phuket.wmv)

[GuyOnTilt]

Wow.

GoT

[sfer]

Jeez. That's happening just slowly enough for one to understand what is happening and the implications, but too fast to do anything about it.

[IndieMatty]

That's nuts. They are pretty much helpless.

[ClaytonN]

It really gives the impression of just how deadly these things are.

A raging river pretty much went through that restaurant/hotel, think about what happens to the village areas with gutted shacks. Then you realize why the death toll is like 33,000 now.

[liquidboss]

damn, that last one is amazing...

[mosta]

I got to this page from the military chat board:

http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=483516&page=1&pp=15

the fifth one down, patong_beach:
http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/patong_beach.wmv

is the guy with the camera speaking english???? sometimes it sounds kind of scandinavian, sometimes not, maybe southeast asian I don't know, but some of it is definitely english. if so, what obscure corner of the UK is he from? (it's like trying to listen to Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview...)

[doppler]

It may be dutch. Hard to tell though.

[Brian]

http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html

Collection of a bunch of tsunami videos.

-Brian

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
The best tsunami video yet (http://media.militaryphotos.net/tsunami/tsunami_phuket.wmv)

[/ QUOTE ]

Not working, anyone have another link?

[wacki]

I think I found it, it begins with "It's comming in! It's comming in again!" Is this the video?

I don't understand how that can kill 50,000 people. I look a that and I think "fun". Anyone ever been to the Upper Gauley? That is much crazier. Then again you don't have random objects floating down the river.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand how that can kill 50,000 people.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is it, something like 5-10 people per mile of coastline affected, maybe less?

[ClaytonN]

wacki, yes that's the one

As to wondering how that could kill so many people, picture a ten-foot tall class five rapid moving through a village of shacks

It's the sorta thing I imagine you'd have to see to believe