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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
BBC: Why did Diego Garcia Escape Tsunami????
2005-01-17
The comments section on this 'article' is amusing..

Following the tsunami, conspiracy rumours have been circulating on the internet of how the US base at Diego Garcia managed to avoid casualties while other islands suffered huge losses. The US Navy's official Diego Garcia website said the island wasn't hit by the devastating tsunami because it is surrounded by deep waters and the grade of its shores does not allow for tsunamis to build before hitting land. The site said the earthquake generated a tidal surge on the island estimated at six feet.

Let us know what you think. Is this just anti-US sentiment on the web or something more worrying?
Posted by:Pappy

#17  Vintage Beeb. This one deserves a good trolling.

A modest proposal: Rantburger(s) with a credible grasp of underwater acoustics or naval experience should send earnest, anonymous fake emails to the Beeb with details of the grand conspiracy.

Y'know, act like a Sy Hersh source. The Beeb's readers are even more gullible than Sy's.
Posted by: lex   2005-01-17 10:04:10 PM  

#16  We thought it was the titty bars...
Posted by: Slerenter Jaque6126   2005-01-17 6:02:37 PM  

#15  Y'all no doubt realize this, but the steep sides and relative isolation of Diego Garcia were factors in the decision to base what we base there.
Posted by: rkb   2005-01-17 4:27:16 PM  

#14  Dish - LOL! I forget sometimes to check in on DiploMad - how foolish! Thx for the wake-up call - it was another priceless post, heh.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-17 4:18:42 PM  

#13  Diplomad explains it all.
Posted by: Dishman   2005-01-17 2:54:01 PM  

#12  It means the ocean waves just reflect off the steep sides of the Diego Garcia seamount like sound waves reflecting off a brick wall. And so they just get a little blip, instead of a huge amount of water piling up like it would if they had extensive shallows.
Posted by: Dave D.   2005-01-17 2:40:15 PM  

#11  In engineering parlance, the island presents a "poor acoustic impedance match"

I don't understand that, therefore there must be a simpler explanashun, i'll go with tu and sams.
Posted by: half   2005-01-17 2:19:27 PM  

#10  Modern version:

"Stay away from that earthquake machine, you don't know nothing about complicated machinery!"
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2005-01-17 2:17:39 PM  

#9  The Eurabian Empire's revered icon of media authority, the B-Beast, practically endorses the DG/tsunami conspiracy theories by:
(a.) applying a tone of skepticism to the official explanation, even though this is basic, easily verifiable science; and
(b.)leaving the question wide open, thereby assigning equivalent credibility to terrorist conspira-liars and basic science alike. ("Let us know what you think. Is this just anti-US sentiment on the web or something more worrying?").

Incidentally, they did the same with the shit-stupid Moon-landing hoax conspiracy theories a couple of years ago.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2005-01-17 1:57:51 PM  

#8  There's a tsunami reflector constructed by Halliburton resting on the ocean floor that surrounds Diego Garcia. It can be observed by any research sub. Honest.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-17 1:37:17 PM  

#7  This brought to mind one of my favorite Brother Dave Gardner lines:

"Charles, get away from that wheelbarrow! You knows you don't know nothin' 'bout no machinery!"
Posted by: .com   2005-01-17 1:17:03 PM  

#6  Lefties at DU are also making much of the fact that DG was "warned" and the poor, brown folk were not.
The B-Beast and other Hate America outlets know, of course, that the average Moonbat is geographically illiterate and would have no idea that Diego Garcia is several thousand kilometers farther from the epicenter than Sri Lanka or Aceh. This not only mitigated the effect of the wave, it allowed plenty of time for warning through official channels, something Diego Garcia had but that the governments of the other areas did not. If nothing else, service personnel at DG could already see news reports on the Aceh and Sri Lanka impacts by the time the wave reached them.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2005-01-17 1:13:12 PM  

#5  The Navy's explanation is correct. If you're familiar with wave physics, a glance at the Diego Garcia nautical charts would lead you to expect little or no tsunami effect. In engineering parlance, the island presents a "poor acoustic impedance match" to the surrounding ocean because of the abrupt falloff in depth very close to shore. And that, in turn, means that very little of the tsunami's energy gets transferred to the shallows and thus to the land.
Posted by: Dave D.   2005-01-17 1:06:42 PM  

#4  Because there's YES/NO setting in the program for Diego Garcia on the Halliburton Earthquake/Tsunami Machine. It was obviously set for "no".
I thought all the moonbats knew that
Posted by: tu3031   2005-01-17 12:50:15 PM  

#3  Its because we didn't target it with our Zionist Death Ray
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2005-01-17 12:49:55 PM  

#2  The BBC loves to encourage rumours that promote its agenda. For sure it's anti US. Isn't that worrying enough?
Posted by: Gleretle Spoger1997   2005-01-17 12:46:22 PM  

#1  Because Allah is not mad at US, Allah is mad at the jerks who commit infammies in His name?
Posted by: gromgorru   2005-01-17 12:40:18 PM  

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