In tribute to have died, I thought I'd post this!
A tsunami is a series of huge waves that happen after an undersea disturbance, such as an earthquake or volcano eruption. (Tsunami is from the Japanese word for harbor wave.) The waves travel in all directions from the area , much like the ripples that happen after throwing a rock. As the big waves approach shallow waters along the coast they grow to a great height and smash into the shore. They can be very high. They can cause a lot of destruction on the shore. They are sometimes mistakenly called "tidal waves," but tsunami have nothing to do with the tides. May god bless all those died.

There is no need to bump here. I believe it is strongly frowned upon.

Anyway, the scientific implications of this event are quite interesting. I've read that the earthquake that caused this tsunami might have actually shifted the plates enough to "push" a certain island chain (can't remember which) a whole 98 feet. Someone confirm this, as I've lost the source. Also, on CNN it was saying that the earthquake might have shifted the Earth's tilt and sped up the Earth's rotation. Large claims, but nonetheless pretty incredible. Again, I invite anyone to post sources confirming or refuting this.

I myself have been in two earthquakes, both relatively minor at 5.9 and 6.0. Since the scale is exponential, the 9.0 earthquake is 1000x stronger than what I felt. I really couldn't imagine what the destructive power would have been if it was centered on a populous area. Scary.

Whatever.. I hate this fact that US knew about the Disaster about 1.5 hours back and it did not inform India. India still had a lot of time and 1.5 hours was enough to get the people 20 km away from the coast. My source is yet unconfirmed.

Also, the bump was only 4 minutes after your initial post.

Oh, that used to happen in China all the time... people in Beijing recieve data that indicates that something big is going to happen tectonically, they don't believe the data and think it to be extraneous data... and then something big does happen. One earthquake killed as many as 240,000 people once. Of course, you don't hear about that much, because the Communist government that used to be in power in China didn't like any signs of weakness getting out.

But yeah, we're waiting for people to call us to ask for donations. So far no one has bothered, but we're willing to donate to help the tsunami victims.

Online / email scams to help with the disaster read the warning:
Scam asking for money

If you donate, make sure your money goes to legit organisation and not to a scam operation.

I had 32 email phizing attempts in the spam filter this morning from different scam operations asking for help to tzunami victims.

Nils

What really surprises me besides how big the tsunami was is how sensitive our equipment is.
A buoy not far from Hawaii detected a rise in the water level, and it was only 7-8 cm! Just 2.76-3.15 in!
I also can not believe that we didnt warn anyone in that region.

Images of the relief effort to help tsunami victims, which is the largest ever staged.
These disasters are going to be but common from the date toward the year 2012 that is it
That the experts say due to the reheating of the planet nowadays they go to happen natural disasters more oftenphotos for tsunami

I happened to watch a special on tsunamis after the disaster occurred.

Tsunamis are usually caused by underwater tectonic disturbances, namely earthquakes. This earthquakes cause one of the plates to suddenly slide upwards as much as 30 feet, thereby causing a tsunami surge that is 30 feet high.

However, the size of the tsunami is limited by its cause. Earthquakes will rarely push a plate up higher than 30 feet, and thus tsunamis that are caused by earthquakes are generally limited to this height.

On the other hand, landslides can generate much higher tsunamis. There is one bay in Alaska, though I don't recall its name, in which this happened. A landslide rolled swiftly into the bay, generating a wave more than 150 feet high. This is proven by the treeline on the surrounding cliffs; at about 150 feet above the sea level, very old trees exist; below that, new trees are growing, indicating mass devastation below the 150 foot mark.

The scary thing is that this was caused by a relatively small landslide. Scientists speculate that if, say, a whole side of a mountain or volcano slid off into the sea, it might generate a tsunami reaching a towering 450 feet in height. They are currently monitoring the west side of one small island off the west coast of Africa. The side of the cliff could potentially fall into the sea. The resulting wave would travel westward and would thus devastate the eastern seaboard of the Americas.

Just a little interesting piece of info on tsunamis

You know what I can't believe? President Bush and Clinton could get together on a dime to make a comercial to donate to the tsunami victims, but no politicians can just up and get together to make a fund for the homeless and needy here in the Untited States!

I understand the emotion felt for everyone over there, but isn't it just too typical for the U.S. to forget about home and fully dedicate themselves to a foreign affair? I just don't understand at all....

You know what most homeless and needy people get good at? Not working and accepting hand-outs. Why? Because that's all that we give them here. "Here's some money and a place to stay so shut up and know that you can never be hired for a respectable job." Sheesh people! We are giving out sucker passes when we should be giving out oportunities!

Sigh, sorry for that- but I really needed to get that off of my chest.... Much respect to those that died in that tragic event. However, this does re-awaken the inevitable. We still have much work to do......


-KAP