Tsunami!
I woke this morning to see my Facebook news feed filled not with stories about Hurricane Sandy but rather of earthquakes in BC, Canada and Tsunami warnings. Apparently last night’s 7.7 quake, which was centered off Haida Gwaii, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands, spawned warnings of Tsunamis up and down the western coast of North America and also in Hawaii where they’ve just recently had the first small wave generated by the event land on their shores.
What do I know about Tsunamis? Only what I’ve read on wikipedia and other internet sites. I do remember exactly where we were when we received news of the hugely devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsumani. Rebecca and I were vacationing in the Dominican Republic at the time and when we clicked on the TV in our hotel room (remember this was 2004 — long before we had a boat), the destruction was being reported on all of the stations. When news of the massive amount of damage in Thailand was announced, we paid extra attention as our friend Peter was visiting there at the time. Fortunately for him, he was quite a bit inland and not in the more common tourist areas which were hit extremely hard.
Tsunami striking Ao Nang, Thailand.
So, what would we do if there was a Tsunami warning issued for this area? I believe the thing to do, assuming that you’re not simply going to leave your boat to fend for itself and run for higher ground, is to head out to sea. From what I’ve read, even the waves which create the most damage on land are barely felt by vessels in deep water. Let’s hope that we don’t have to put this bit of theory to the test though.
Sign here in Grenada near Grand Anse beach.
A good friend who lives on her Cat in a marina in Ventura, Cali experienced the Japanese Tsunami in 2011. They were able to get far enough off shore to only feel a “very rolly sea.” She said it was still unnerving to know that they were trying to beat Mother Nature at her game. Thank goodness for warning devices.
I can imagine that it would be very unnerving!
The strangest thing about that earthquake last night is, here in North Vancouver no one felt a thing, Nor downtown Vancouver. One of my daughters is on Vancouver Island for the weekend and I contacted her right away and she never felt a thing. Yet friends in Kelowna, which is 4 hours inland, felt it – one guy was on the 23rd floor and said the building “swayed like crazy”. Other friends on one of the Gulf Islands felt nothing.
The threat of a Tsunami is scary but I honestly don’t think anything major will hit the coast of BC – the earthquake happened too close to it to build any momentum in the sea. Hawaii, however…. I sure hope not.
So many of the Caribbean islands are very hilly so it wouldn’t take much to get to higher ground. I always think of Anegada though, and how it is so flat. There is nowhere to go. At all. And there are earthquake tremors on that island daily. I felt them on a trip to the salt pond.
Really? Daily?
I wouldn’t say daily, but 5 in the last year..
http://earthquaketrack.com/r/anegada-british-virgin-islands/recent
Speaking of Tsunamis…
“Another possible regional source of tsunamis that could affect the BVI is the Kick-`em-Jenny submarine volcano, located about 5 miles north of Grenada and 500 miles south of Tortola. Dr. John Shepherd (Head of the Seismic Research Unit, Trinidad) said (in September 1999) “Kick `em Jenny’s eruptions are frequent, but small. Our hypothetical worst case scenario was for 130ft. waves in the Grenadines, but the realistic worst case scenario is for 50ft. waves – and in the most likely scenario, waves would probably not be much worse than the swell from a near-miss hurricane. The SRU’s ‘high probability’ predictions (based on Kick `em Jenny’s 1939 eruption, which caused a 3 to 6 ft. tsunami in Barbados) forecast a 10 ft. wave at Grenada’s north coast, diminishing to under 3 ft. by the time it reaches Port of Spain, Trinidad.”
Source: EVACUATION PLAN FOR THE ISLAND OF ANEGADA
http://www.bviddm.com/document-center/Anegada%20-%20Evacuation%20Plan%20(2).pdf