Tsunamis

I can remember in 1964 when I watched black and white movies on TV of how bad the Alaska quake and tsunamis were then. I don't think there were movies of quakes and tsunamis anywhere that looked that bad until then at least in the U.S.

I read of one account of a man in a 75 foot or longer fishing boat or trawler with his 10 year old son. He had no idea an earthquake had occurred yet or that a tsunami was headed towards him. He was within 5 miles of the Alaskan coast when suddenly he looked out to sea and saw a hundred foot wall of water headed toward he and his son and his fishing boat. So he gunned the boat at full speed ahead and barely made it over the hundred foot crest when the wave broke and even then he was worried about the boat capsizing in such a huge crested wave. But somehow the boat stayed aright and he watched the wave hit the shore and mountains and trees and then he had to deal with all the hundreds of uprooted full grown pine and fir trees coming out into the ocean where he was. And he didn't know which was worse: cresting the wave or dodging hundreds of full grown huge trees swept into the ocean by the huge wave hitting the shore and nearby mountains. He said the ocean took all the trees nearby to an altitude of 1000 feet on the shore mountains and anyone unlucky to be there that was human or animal that couldn't fly likely was dead. I read this account in Reader's Digest in 1964 when I was 16. It was so well written and so horrific and otherworldly that I have never forgotten it.

Today as an intuitive I can feel the fear of all those who live on or near the Pacific Ocean wondering if they (wherever they live in the Pacific Region) might be in for it again. The quakes near Samoa and Sumatra that have likely taken together thousands of lives are a sobering of all of us who live on the ring of fire and all wonder "What's Next?"

From what I have gathered if you are warned to get to higher ground by fire or police or reverse 911 automated phone calls it is a good idea to do what they say.

I was thinking today of how Pago Pago on American Samoa was hit. They said the 20 foot high plus wave or Tide hit in 5 waves but most people died in the first wave but the destruction continued through all 5 waves caused by the large earthquake nearby.

So, if 5 20 foot high waves could go 1.5 miles inland then I was thinking that a 100 foot wave or waves that hit the Alaskan coast in 1964 might go maybe 5 to 10 miles inland and over 1000 feet high. Whereas a 20 foot wave like hit Samoa would likely not be able to destroy much above about 100 feet in elevation from the ocean.

Another thing to know about Tsunamis is that most tsunamis can be fairly easily ridden out in boats or ships if those boats are ships are at least 5 to 10 miles out to sea. So if you are on the ocean shore you can (depending upon how much time you have), climb a tree, climb a mountain or if the sea hasn't already gone out 1 or more miles go out then 5 to 10 miles to sea to ride out the tsunami there in your or a friend's boat.

8 hours later: I was thinking about all this whenever I woke up during the night and realized that a theoretical 100 foot tsunami or tidal wave could devastate an island 20 miles in diameter and 1000 feet high at its highest point leaving almost no one alive except birds or people who were 5 to 10 miles from the island in a boat or ship. So it gives credence to a theoretical Atlantis type of scenario given an earthquake somewhere of between an 8 and a 10 on the Richter scale and at least a 100 foot tidal wave or tsunami. I have often thought that Noah's Ark and Atlantis were the same place and same situation at the same time.

Also, a tsunami is completely different from a surfing wave at Makaha or other 25 to 50 foot wave sites because at these sites we have force but very little volume of water. However, a tsunami or tidal waves is where the whole ocean for a time raises 20 to 100 feet and stays that way for a short time.

A friend of mine was on Maui in the early 1960s when he was about 14 when all of a sudden the ocean went out a mile or more which most people now know is the sure sign of a tsunami or tidal wave. Because there were fish flopping on the now dry ocean floor many hundreds of people ran out to harvest this bounty of fish and then they all died when the tidal wave came in and up onto the island and washed away many houses, businesses and people. He watched in horror from his hotel balcony upper story as the people all died and the bottom floor of his hotel flooded.