Article

2011-03-29 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

The Most Insane Japanese Tsunami Video Yet

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Threase Omurt5624 2011-03-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 That is a frightening video. The relentless power of the sea pouring into the town, taking down most everything in its path is unreal. I wonder what the fellow with the video camera was thinking as the water rose higher and higher toward his vantage point.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-03-29 02:26|| 2011-03-29 02:26|| Front Page Top

#2 It makes the Boxing Day tsunami videos look like a minor inconvenience.

Note the multi-storey building in the center that withstood the tsunami.

I keep thinking about the geomorphological evidence for tsunamis 10 to a 100 times bigger than this one along many of the world's coastlines. And their re-occurence at seemingly regular intervals.

Posted by phil_b 2011-03-29 02:56|| 2011-03-29 02:56|| Front Page Top

#3 And to think this is *exactly* what is going to happen some day along the coast of Washington, Oregon and Vancouver. They are sitting on exactly the same kind of fault and it has been about 300 years since the last quake of almost exactly this same size.

Posted by crosspatch 2011-03-29 04:55|| 2011-03-29 04:55|| Front Page Top

#4 I thought subby oversold it in the first minute, but it just got worse and worse. I was wondering if that concrete building was going to go by the end. Wow.

Posted by Mizzou Mafia 2011-03-29 05:36|| 2011-03-29 05:36|| Front Page Top

#5 Sure, Crospatch, that'd be fun here (Vankong), but wait when the Yellowstone caldera blows!

Phil_b, The last two megatsunamis were pretty close, ~1540BCE and ~720BCE. We've been lucky for 2700 years.

Posted by twobyfour 2011-03-29 05:36|| 2011-03-29 05:36|| Front Page Top

#6 Yes, sooner or later Yellowstone will blow again, plus the New Madrid fault will go again. What exactly causes sand geysers anyway? Ugh.

Posted by Jefferson 2011-03-29 07:00|| 2011-03-29 07:00|| Front Page Top

#7 I kept imagining what I would do if I were down in that parking lot. I thought about getting on top of the parking structure and then getting on top of that small two story building.
Yeah, I'd be safe there...
Nope, not really.

Lesson: pay attention to warnings. Last minute heroics get you dead.

Posted by Fat Bob Spusoth1650 2011-03-29 09:46|| 2011-03-29 09:46|| Front Page Top

#8 The light first dawned for me a long time ago, with a Jacques Cousteau program where he had divers descend down the undersea wall of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It's a 32,500 ft. tall mountain, and most of it is underwater.

That wall was pretty flat and straight down, and is basically a retaining wall for that ginormous mountain. Even as a kid I could tell that if that wall "went", something very, very bad was going to happen.

The Hawaiian islands have already had several such collapses, creating massive tsunamis, but they have also been on the receiving end of tsunamis as well, from Japan, Alaska and even Chile.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-03-29 09:57|| 2011-03-29 09:57|| Front Page Top

#9 And for us on the East Coast - The Canary Islands and Cumbra Vieja.

Posted by Hellfish 2011-03-29 12:25|| 2011-03-29 12:25|| Front Page Top

#10 If you look at the "before and after" satellite photos those concrete structures are the only things left.

Posted by tipover 2011-03-29 12:32|| 2011-03-29 12:32|| Front Page Top

#11 Looks like a 30' surge above sealevel. Rose enough to take out the docks then rose another 20' around the tall buildings just beyond the docks.

Posted by Jack Thuter4002 2011-03-29 13:15|| 2011-03-29 13:15|| Front Page Top

#12

And then came the fires at Kesennuma port.

Posted by Jack Thuter4002 2011-03-29 13:29|| 2011-03-29 13:29|| Front Page Top

#13 Jeezus, it just keeps coming and coming! What did it finally get to - 20, 30 feet high? More?

I'd probably stop filming long enough to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-03-29 19:44|| 2011-03-29 19:44|| Front Page Top

#14 How long did it go on, is what I want to know? The water is still coming strong when the video ends. I'd like to see it go to the end and then see what the backwash was like.

Also, the one part where the guys speak, they say "Oi, oi, hito!" and point out in the water. This means "hey, a person." But I can't make it out. But I keep wondering how many people were trapped in those cars or in the boats, etc. The only other people you can make out here are on the roof of the other building.

Posted by DJ Curtis C 2011-03-29 20:47|| 2011-03-29 20:47|| Front Page Top

#15 Definitely scary. Actually I didn't think that tsunamis would be like that.

Starts out like a wave you could walk away from until you realize that even running won't do.

Posted by European Conservative 2011-03-29 20:53|| 2011-03-29 20:53|| Front Page Top

#16 Some estuaries and other coastal configurations funnel and intensify tsunamis. Esentially the volume of water piles up in a narrowing gap. That may be the case here.

Posted by phil_b 2011-03-29 20:59|| 2011-03-29 20:59|| Front Page Top

#17 Yes it doesn't look like a wave, more like a raised sea level

Posted by European Conservative 2011-03-29 21:26|| 2011-03-29 21:26|| Front Page Top

#18 If it is, that's also the case at Sendai, phil.

Just about all the tapes I've seen look like this (but not as scary).

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-03-29 21:28|| 2011-03-29 21:28|| Front Page Top

#19

Posted by Phuting and Company7064 2011-03-29 22:34|| 2011-03-29 22:34|| Front Page Top

23:59 Bill Griling5080
23:19 USN,Ret
23:10 Fi
23:01 Water Modem
23:00 Water Modem
22:42 Pappy
22:34 Phuting and Company7064
22:28 Zhang Fei
22:18 Bright Pebbles
22:03 Phuting and Company7064
21:28 Barbara Skolaut
21:26 European Conservative
21:14 Menhadden Whaish8836
21:09 Pappy
21:06 Pappy
20:59 phil_b
20:53 European Conservative
20:47 DJ Curtis C
20:43 European Conservative
20:41 European Conservative
20:38 Zhang Fei
19:55 OldSpook
19:52 Frank G
19:44 Barbara Skolaut