Frightening documentary on Eathquake.

[Willi]

British TV already had a beautifully shot documentary on the Haiti earthquake (eq). I only caught the last half hour, but fortunately my wife taped it.

Apparently, it was an unusual slip-strike eq and it raise land on one side of Haiti and sunk land on the other.

Here is the alarming part. It seems like the fault has been awakened and the average life of a waking is like 17 years and from P-au-P to KGN, the alrm bells are ringing. The type of movement seems to represent a rubber-band snap and could result in a rupture force 9 POINT eq, similar to what caused the tSunami in Asia!!! This will set off a GINORMOUS tidal wave at SUPERSONIC spped and will deluge the Caribbean in minutes, the Gulf of Mex in 20 minutes, South America in an hour and Europe/Africa in 4 hours. Can you imagine what will happen to boats at Sea?

Good thing I was tired, or I may not have had any sleep last night. It was frightening!

From what I saw, the message was clear...KINGSTON/Jamaica is staring at the barrel of a loaded gun!!! Mandeville does not look so bad now (tsunami)...though no where in Jamdung is eq proof.

[Mosiah]

Can you imagine what will happen to boats at Sea?

Boats at sea arre probably safe! It's only when the wave reaches shore does it release its energy.

Counting on 4th form geography now.

[Willi]

Even at supersonic speeds for the tidal waves?

I dont think so.

Just the graphics they showed alone was frightening.

[Mosiah]

My geography did not fail me!

Could a Tsunami Swamp a Cruise Ship?

Such an occurrence, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises' Andrew Poulton told Cruise Critic today, would be highly unlikely.

Indeed, when the tsunami began to strike the coastlines of 12 different countries in South Asia, a handful of cruise ships, such as Star Clippers' Star Flyer, Seabourn's Spirit and Swan Hellenic's Minerva, were sailing, if not right in affected areas then in the general oceanic vicinity. None reported any damage to the vessel -- or injury to passengers and crew. In fact, Poulton says, "If you are on a cruise ship and in the ocean you might not even notice it."

Tsunamis travel at speeds of 500 miles per hour across the open sea, Poulton adds. "People may think of it as a wall of water coming across the ocean, but it's not. It's a shock wave sent across the sea. When it gets to shallow water it compresses and is forced into a huge wave -- because it's got nowhere to go. It only becomes an issue when the water hits land."

Even ships docked, pierside, likely won't be horribly affected should a tsunami approach. That's because most cruise ships need at least 30 feet or so to dock, which is actually fairly deep (15 ft. deep, on the other hand, would be considered shallow). However, the caveat is: ships must be tied with super extra care.

A story on today's wire services backs that up. In a report issued by Bloomberg, the government of India is warning that, as a result of aftershocks, another tsunami could occur. At Madras' Chennai Port, which is primarily a cargo port, loading was halted -- and 15 ships were anchored in the harbor rather than sent out to the open sea (cruise lines have already altered itineraries away from the impacted areas).

The worst-case scenario is that the wave, approaching the docked ship, could be fairly "large at that point and may knock the ship against the pier -- but it wouldn't capsize," Poulton explains. Far scarier for cruise passengers than a tsunami, he adds, is a rogue wave. He noted that some years ago when he worked for Cunard, Queen Elizabeth 2, sailing in the Atlantic, was almost suddenly slammed by a 90-foot wave -- a freak condition, Poulton says. "Thank god the captain actually saw it coming on radar," he says. "It was like a wall and he faced the ship right into the wave. There was some structural damage, but nothing else."

[Za]

I think Mosiah is right. tidal waves usually have a long wavelength and low height. Shallow water slows down the wave and causing the height to increase.
It's kinda like a high speed crash

[Willi]

Point taken, but the graphics at the epicentre looked like what is described above as shock waves.

I guess the only ship danger is near the epicentre and close to land.

[orson.octavius]

I found it! That's a shock. It's on the Australian Project Gutenberg not the US one. For some reason though everytime I try to add a link to this message yahoo is giving me a 999 error. gutenberg dot net dot au /fsf/BABYLON-REVISITED.html

[orson.octavius]

I'm afraid that it's not in the public domain yet, so no site can legally make it available online for free. His only public domain works are:
The Beautiful and Damned
Flappers and Philosophers
Tales of the Jazz Age