tsunami warning in hawaii

i know, I was suppose to be going to kauai in a week, my plans might be changed...

 

I'm curious...for an area that is used to large waves and lots of swell energy on a regular basis, why are they so worried about a seven-foot tsunami wave? They're not even talking Hawaiian-scale, just regular old seven feet, the way us haole mainlanders know it. I'm sure the biggest thing anyone there needs to worry about is getting run over by a news van rushing to cover the incoming ripple.

 

because its a series of waves that continually push into shore which could drown the typical beach goer.

 

A 7-foot tsunami is akin to a 7-foot tide or storm surge coming in, in minutes.

Wind makes normal waves; like when you blow on your soup, it makes ripples; whereas a tsunami is like shaking the bowl.

 

You must not know what a tsumani really does... its not just a "wave" its a massive surge of water. Picture all the water being sucked away from the shore where the tsumani will hit and then a couple minutes later all that water returning to land in a massive destructive surge hat will most likey eclipse the beaches and move inland bringing with it unmanageable amouts of flooding and destruction. This cycle can repeat itself multiple times much like an aftershock of an earthquake until eventually the surges will subside and the only thing left to do is tally the damage and hope for no loss of life.

Lets hope Hawaii does not encounter the full brunt of what this tsunami may be.

 

Right on, I understand that. Of course it's not going to be some smooth wave breaking over the reef and peeling for a minute. Just seems like a typical decent swell there causes more energy to come ashore than whatever they're saying is going to happen.

We recently had a couple surges in that range here recently, very choppy but I didn't see CNN try to stop the world for that.

The news just showed one of the warning sirens start blaring, right when it started a big blast of white feathers came flying out the front of it. Casualty number one.

 

Maybe, red is a very scary color.

That's just what they said...7 or maybe 8 feet.

 

Please nobody misunderstand me, I know a tsunami is a destructive force. My point is that it seems like they are just very used to that much energy coming from the ocean.

Is it just because it's coming from the south and the the north is used to more energy?

 

longer wave period - more mass to the wave, its not a 7ft. aframe wave....


Live local news stream:
http://www.khon2.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=3299&navCatId=4

 

Sum dude just paddled out on a longboard at populars in waikiki

Tsunami eta for hawaii = 15mins...lol. hope this dude makes it & gets a pic or video

 

UghVeeBee... i still think you are misunderstanding what a tsunami is. It is nothing like windswell so you cant really compare a foot foot tsunami to a 7 ft swell for surfing. A 7 foot tsunami carries waaaaayyy more energy than a 7 foot, or even 20 foot swell.

The swell Hawaii typically gets would have a wavelength of a few hundred feet (the distance between incoming waves). The wavelength of a tsunami is over 100 MILES and it shrinks to about 10 miles as it gets closer to shore. That means that even though the height of it is only 7 ft, that 7 ft of height continues for 5 miles behind the wave when it reaches the shore. That is a lot of water.

 

Right, right, I understand all that. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean years back pushed in like a 25 foot wave in multiples. Now THAT caused the type of inland push that they're claiming this is going to do...water rushing a mile in, in low-lying areas, etc. Basically my skepticism is based in comparing it with events that have already happened.

 

And before anyone cracks wise I'll say it first..."Why would anyone who lives in VB think water could ever be dangerous anyways?"

 

its not a wave, its a wall of water. a normal wave goes onto the beach, and then retreats to the ocean again, but a tsunami is a wall that pushes inland and just keeps coming and coming for usually almost a mile.

 

No.its because tsunamis are extremely long period waves...like minutes or more. A 7 foot tsunami with a period of many minutes is way WAYYY more powerful than a 7 foot wave with a period of 10-15 seconds and carries like thousands of times more water so once it breaks it just keep coming and coming. It is also traveling WAY faster than swell travels so momentum carries all that water uphill a long way.

 

i heard it described like this....picture an 8 ft wall of water moving at like 60-100 mph and taking everything in its path with it....def not just a big wave that comes in breaks and leaves....especially since its gaining deep water energy over all those miles...like a super ground swell!!

 

the period of the wave is 20 minutes!!!!!!! Imagine that... we think of a large period as being 15-20 seconds- THIS IS 20 MINUTES!! That means that the wavelength is much greater and therefore THE SPEED of the waves is RIDICULOUSLY fast. It has so much more energy than a 25 foot hawaiian scale wave.

 

Well said. Like I just posted on another message saying that I was surfing 5 foot OB this morning in San Diego at the pier. They called me out of the water because california is going to get a 5 foot Tsunami later this evening and they are already clearing everything... Even though it gets 20 feet here in the winter, the beaches can handle that... When a tsunami surge hits, the wave "Size" isnt the issue. It is an unsurfable, incredibly fast surge that sucks out the beaches like Pipeline on a negative tide, and then smashes huge walls of whitewater pretty much 100 miles and hour, flooding everything on flat groud for about 1/4 - 1/2 mile... Not to mention is is not peaking wave, its a wall that will fill in every spot on the coast. Every inlet will get hit hard, every boat channel... ****, they are clearing ships out of the San Diego bay, because they will buckle into all the structures, pier and walls surrounding the large ships if a 5 foot tsuami surge enters the bay, which it will since the bay faces west and south....