Of course the big news today is the 8.8 earthquake in Chile and the Tsunami warning stemming from it. There’s not much I could add that’s not already being covered, but I thought this image from the American West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center was interesting. They posted this map with estimated arrival times of tsunami waves generated by the 8.8 earthquake earthquake off the coast of Chile:
Even more interesting is the map they published of the path of energy distribution in the waves. It looks like Hawaii will dodge the worst of it:
The image above depicts wave height in centimeters.
I’m not posting direct links to these images at the center since I don’t want their server to be overwhelmed, so I’ve stored them locally.
It looks like the Aleutian islands may get some significant portion of this as will New Zealand.
The Tsunami Warning Center has a very detailed list of estimated arrival times for waves generated by Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake at many locations along the west coast of the United States. On the US West coast, the first waves to arrive will be in San Diego just after noon PST.
BONUS:
Quite possibly the stupidest science headline ever, from MSNBC and LiveScience:
Big quake question: Is nature out of control?
and
Chile Earthquake: Is Mother Nature Out of Control?
Newsflash: Nature has never been within our control.
This article at Livescience which MSNBC picked up was written by Jeanna Bryner,
who has also written articles on “The Perils of Text Messaging While Walking” and “Wanted: The Equation of Love”
Her apparent justification for the current headline:
“One scientist, however, says that relative to a time period in the past, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.”
Since the introduction of the Internet and proliferation of live global satellite news coverage, also in the past 15-20 years, we certainly do hear more about what goes on around the planet, often within minutes of occurrence. Does that mean the planet is getting more active? Not neccessarily, but you can draw the conclusion that are reporting system has improved dramatically during that period.
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Farther away (Rikitea in French Polinesia) impact was much lower than in San Felix, as can be shown in the following graph:
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=riki&period=1&time=2010-2-26 20:46:00
Ecotretas
Dr Svalgaard ~ Given your solar expertise, do you think the EQ was an effect from the magnetic filament snapping off? Or one of the CME’s? Or none of the above……Thank you…..
Ooops. Last link should be:
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=riki&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2020:46:00
Ecotretas
By the time we wake up Sunday morning, somebody will try to link this to AGW. Take it to the bank….
Who knew, a Tsunami wave travels on average at 450 mph. Given the time from the epicenter and distance to Hawaii (close to 7,000 miles) equals 15.5 hours from the event. Very close to the graph.
Final sirens in Hawaii just now ~ another 15 minutes ~ here’s a webcam:
http://hitsunami.info/
As Tsunamis reach both polar regions, is there any scientific paper researching the effects on the mass on ice in that regions? As a layman i would guess that tsunami could break parts of the ice shields and so Tsunamis would have effects on the total amount of ice in that regions.
Is there an effect which is more than negligible?
Maybe we should all jump up in the air at the same time and knock some sense into our ‘out of control planet’.
THANKS — Great pictures, I wonder how do they determine the energy distribution. Don’t tsunamis move in the upper water mass, you would think that only land masses would change the energy reflections and things like that. Somebody has a seriously fast computer.
Bulaman (12:01:47) :
“What weight does a Tsunami surge place on the unlerlying crust? If a column of water 6000 feet thick is lifted 2 feet (latest height report from the Chathams) that is a lot of unusual load as it rolls across the globe?
Dangers to humanity
1) Earthquake/Tsunami (Tectonic)
2) Volcanoes
3) Asteroids
Very distant last = global warming”
The real number one is not on your list unless it was your intend only to list Natural Dangers to humanity!
IMO the biggest short term risk to human civilization are the extreme left and right
doctrines like Communism and National Socialism.
These doctrines have killed more people than all natural events put together.
I am convinced that the current “Green Doctrine” striving for World Governance fit that category.
Watch your back when Government officials speak words of praise about the mass murderers of the passed.
Watch your back when people with the stature of John Holdren are found in high positions.
The biggest threat to humanity is man!
>>>Big quake question: Is nature out of control?
>>>Chile Earthquake: Is Mother Nature Out of Control?
Typical out-of-touch Greenie responses. However:
a. 150 years ago, we would not know about this event for another two months or so.
b. 150 years ago there were far fewer people and high-rise buildings to cause mayhem.
The more we populate the planet, the more that mother nature’s occasional hiccups will affect us.
.
Anthony,
Some pretty impressive pictures, now relative to mainland Chile, showing the impact of the tsunami there, where at least 3 people have died from it:
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=coqu&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2021:17:00
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=cald&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2021:17:00
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=valp&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2021:17:00
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=anto&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2021:22:00
http://www.ioc-sealevelmonitoring.org/bgraph.php?par=corr&period=1&time=2010-2-26%2021:22:00
Ecotretas
Suranda (12:49:55) :
Dr Svalgaard ~ Given your solar expertise, do you think the EQ was an effect from the magnetic filament snapping off? Or one of the CME’s? Or none of the above……Thank
None of the above. For once, the solar wind effect from the Filament or the CME had not yet reached the Earth last night, if it ever will [it might miss us].
The first wave that hit the Chatham Islands were 30 cms. Then they went up to 500 cms then a metre and at one place 1.5 m.
Here the Banks peninsular will be the worst hit. Arrived there now, but it helps that its low tide.
I’m thinking the Galapagos islands must be right in the path of the strongest wave surge of the Tsunami. Any news on what has happened there??
The storm surge is just now arriving in Hilo, Big Island. Nothing major yet, but definite discoloration of water and some strange currents. The water is a bit lower than normal low tide.
Here on Maui it’s like a ghost town on the beach. The beachside park across the street from me in S. Kihei is shut down. The normally busy street is deserted. Lots of people just hanging out on their lanais watching the water. I typing this from the 4th floor, about 300 yards from the beach.
Lots of anticipation, ever since I was awakened at 6AM by the tsunami siren down the street, but so far nothing going on.
A potential side effect is wastewater discharge to the oceans because the water department has shutdown some facilities as a preventative measure.
Hope it doesn’t awaken any of the giants, we’ve had five larger volcano eruptions in 2008 and 2009. One being Chaiten in southern Chile. Big waves are heading for the northern hemisphere volcanic islands, great *eyes wide open*. If we get some more big volcanoes right now, it will make for more wild & harsh winters, I guess global warming sure enough will be dead then.
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm
The NZ waves have generally been c 0.3-0.4 m with the exception of the Chatham Islands where it has been 1 m. It is unclear whether these are just the initial waves, as the site warns that waves may come over a 6 hour time period, and the first may not be the worst.
Official updates can be found here. It is being regularly updated even though it is Sunday here.
http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf
Anybody else hear Obama saying “we can’t control nature”
Hmmm, still watching FNC for the surge. The female host (van Daris?) is quite excited. Fairly annoying.
Showing Long Beach, CA receded water from the marinas (also low tide).
It seems like deep water buoys or other air/water surveillance would track the surge closer. Still pretty normal water. My niece lives on Oahu but I haven’t spoken with her.
11:43A HST. Water level as Hilo continued to go lower on the live TV shot on channels 5 and 8, with the outgoing currents being clearly visible in some areas. It now appears to have reached the low water of the first wave. Hard to judge the height.
11:45 — water is clearly coming back into Hilo bay.
Nothing visible yet here on Mai.
Low flying helo just came by yet again warning people off the beach.
Gotta love those folks on the cliffs! If anything dramatic occurs at all . Ah ha…1.5 ft high on the big island.
Water is now flowing out of Kahului harbor on Maui. Lots of discolored water.
So far nothing extremely dramatic. Kind of like having a tidal cycle of a 4 feet, but with a period of just a few minutes rather than 12/24 hours.
I blame it on humans, specifically Harrison Ford flying his plane up the coast to get a cheeseburger. Or it is punishment from (pick your deity) for not agreeing anything in Copenhagen.
That’s science.
Des (13:40:46) :
Anybody else hear Obama saying “we can’t control nature”
What? I didn’t hear that, but I’m beginning to suspect a false prophet and a less than an Omnipotent one!
Very sorry about the folks in Chile and now Argentina (a 6.6). An interesting comparison between the results in Chile and Haiti. Pretty low fatalities in Chile, it seems.
“One scientist, however, says that relative to a time period in the past, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.”
Good grief, surely the people of Chile and anyone else in the way of this deserve better.