Monday, January 2, 2012

Tsunami - A New Year Resolution for Washington and Oregon?

Aionea, Japan (Y. Tsuji)

I have been giving some thought to the reports of tsunami generated debris that is heading towards the Pacific Northwest coast. More on that later. I did come across a couple of tsunami videos I had not previously seen. Both are associated with tsunami walls - a winner and a loser. Impressive. At least one town leader (the second video) had learned from previous experience. Have we in Washington State (and Oregon, northern California, B.C) acted on any lessons learned? Oh, and the picture above with the tsunami wall and the destruction behind the wall was taken in 1993. That tsunami generated 60-foot high waves.  


1 comment:

Ryan M. Ferris said...

Because of the length of this video, the viewer gets a good look at what a tsunami 'wave' actually can be. It is not necessary for it to be some menacing high wave front. In fact, it is clear from the film that the this Tsunami created damage ins multiple waves, the first waves filling up the harbor with its 60' wall. The later waves simply 'leverage' the now elevated volume of water to sweep everything left in the harbor onto the town. So in Whatcom County, everything the first waves will reach (harbors, waterfront development,lowlands trains, coal piles, refineries) will be swept inland by the second or third set of waves.