Hearing the news of the 8.8 rictor earthquake in Chile yesterday, brought back memories of Tsunami 2004 here in Phuket.
Damage caused by 2004 tsunami wave. Bon Island, Phuket.
The 2004 tsunami wave approaching Bon Island, note the fishing boat just behind the wave.
As the news broke that a Pacific wide tsunami could be generated it was time to check on the listing to see if Thailand was mentioned. What a relief, Thailand was not on the list but Indonesia was, and that left some doubts as to the possibility of the wave arriving here.
Checking on the NOAA Tsunami webpage showed that tsunamis that had already occurred were not so large, and eventually some 15 hours later, news that Hawaii had escaped with no damage was enough to be of reassurance. However Russia and Japan were still on alert of a possible 2m wave although all other areas were considered safe and the warnings cancelled. Wow! what a narrow escape.
53 countries had been on alert, but reading comments appearing on various websites, it appeared that there is still a serious lack of understanding of the nature of tsunami, what to do and when to do it. People sitting around and watching the water go down and not acting. So it is time people learn more about the warning system, the scientific facts of how long it takes for the water to travel from the epicenter, what kind of terrain will be worst affected and so on. Survival is about being in the right place, loss of life is about being in the worst place and not knowing where to go, or how quickly to react.
The NOAA offers a lot of good information on their website,
check out http://www.tsunamiready.noaa.gov/ for 'Tsunami Ready' Information including videos and links.
Another good website is the ITIC (International Tsunami Information Center) which again gives information and other links to follow. Find out 'about tsunamis' at:
Tsunamis happen more often than the average person realises, (statistics can be see for 20th century on the following link: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/tsunamiready/stats.pdf ) thankfully most of them don't result in a disaster, but as our climate changes who knows what may be waiting for us in the years ahead!
*Register for email alerts for earthquakes on the USGS site https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/
**Footnote.**
In proof of how the tsunami 'dart buoys' can save us, the Phuket dart buoy registers a normal water depth of 3468+ meters, however after an earthquake in Indonesia of M5.3 on Jan 31st at UTC time 07.02 (local Phuket time 14.02) the dart measured water at 3469+ meters, although a small change in ocean depth of just a few centimetres, it at least proves that the information produced can warn of different sea levels and help n the forcast of an on-coming tsunami. However the above mentioned event was too small an earthquake to create a tsunami.
The below information was copied from: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=23401
2010 01 31 18 00 00 1 3468.732
2010 01 31 17 45 00 1 3468.798
2010 01 31 17 30 00 1 3468.862
2010 01 31 17 15 00 1 3468.921
2010 01 31 17 00 00 1 3468.972
2010 01 31 16 45 00 1 3469.017
2010 01 31 16 30 00 1 3469.059
2010 01 31 16 15 00 1 3469.094
2010 01 31 16 00 00 1 3469.120
2010 01 31 15 45 00 1 3469.138
2010 01 31 15 30 00 1 3469.151
2010 01 31 15 15 00 1 3469.153
2010 01 31 15 00 00 1 3469.144
2010 01 31 14 45 00 1 3469.127
2010 01 31 14 30 00 1 3469.103
2010 01 31 14 15 00 1 3469.072
2010 01 31 14 00 00 1 3469.033
2010 01 31 13 45 00 1 3468.993
2010 01 31 13 30 00 1 3468.946
2010 01 31 13 15 00 1 3468.896
2010 01 31 13 00 00 1 3468.843
2010 01 31 12 45 00 1 3468.784
2010 01 31 12 30 00 1 3468.725
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