Samoa tsunami - first-hand report.

Sounds really alarming. I have to say that after reading about the Boxing day tsunami the first thing I would have done after feeling the earthquake was cast off and head out to sea at full speed.
 
I'm with Snowleopard on this one. Fishermen from villages destroyed by the boxing day tsunami didn't know it had happened until they returned to port. Really bad luck that it happened at night as more boats would have been out and safe. Thank heavens UK is in the middle of a tectonic plate, less likely (though not impossible) here.
 
oldfatgit said:
I'm with Snowleopard on this one. Fishermen from villages destroyed by the boxing day tsunami didn't know it had happened until they returned to port. Really bad luck that it happened at night as more boats would have been out and safe. Thank heavens UK is in the middle of a tectonic plate, less likely (though not impossible) here.
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Not quite! OK, we aren't going to get plate boundary earthquakes, but THIS could cause something very nasty to happen on the East Coast - last time was only 6000 years ago! The good news is that it has been assessed as unlikely to give trouble this side of a glaciation, but you never know! And the Canaries are also rather overdue for causing a tsunami that might well affect the Southwest (BBC).

There is also historic evidence of a tsunami affecting the Bristol Channel and Severn areas in 1607 (BBC). This one is less well documented, though, and opinions differ as to whether it was really a tsunami.

It could happen here!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
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It could happen here!
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Its statistically irrelevant. More likely to get swamped by the wash of ship. Glad to see you used Wikipedia for the reference, its not bad, despite the Pan...ing it gets!

Just read the article. Very scary stuff. Obviously a lot of luck on the posters side but having the wherefore all to get your boat up and running and out to deep water when she was on top of the harbour takes a degree of self control.
 
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On a seperate point, I was irritated to read that a reporter joined the forum just to contact the poster for a story.

I was reminded of when we lost a neighbour in the 1988 Clapham Rail Disaster. By the end of the day, we had reporters knocking on doors looking for information and comments about the casualty.

Pretty heartless, IMO. :(
 
Bugger all to do with Tsunamis but SWMBO is in the Philippines and has been for the last 3 weeks. She's spent 3 days without food or drinking water trapped on the upper part of a rented house with power mostly down and mobile going flat. The whole area is flooded and no aid ever came as she's not in the city. That was Ketsana doing it's thing. She's due back in 2 weeks, I've told her to get back pdq once the waters subside and before the next one hits!

When she told me she hadn't eaten for 3 days I was all heart and sympathy, telling her how she had been trying unsuccessfully to diet for ages, now she could do it for free!
 
Mysef and Hannah are sending our thoughts to those who got caught up in this disaster and their families. I am spreading the word with regards to the yacht for sale too.

That post sent shivers down our spine which have not stopped in the 10 mins since reading it. It certainy can put things into perspective.

May all of those who were not so lucky to escape with their lives Rest in Peace.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Its statistically irrelevant. More likely to get swamped by the wash of ship. Glad to see you used Wikipedia for the reference, its not bad, despite the Pan...ing it gets!

Just read the article. Very scary stuff. Obviously a lot of luck on the posters side but having the wherefore all to get your boat up and running and out to deep water when she was on top of the harbour takes a degree of self control.
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Wikipedia is fine as long as you accept its limitations. I happened to know about the Storegga slide and the risks of collapse of the Canary Islands volcanoes, so I was confident that Wikipedia and the BBC had it basically right. Where it gets scary is where there are violently conflicted views of a subject.

As far as statistical irrelevance goes, all tsunamis are high hazard, low risk events. The chances of getting caught by one are small, even in an earthquake zone, but if you are caught you stand a good chance of getting wiped out. Getting caught by wash is high hazard, medium risk, so of course it is a greater overall danger. But, unlike the Tsunami, the risk can be mitigated by good risk management strategies - like Colregs and keeping out of the way of bigger vessels!

I wouldn't be too sure that we are entirely immune to major earthquakes in the UK, by the way. History is a bad guide to intraplate earthquakes, and such quakes may be extremely destructive (see This).
 
There was a huge debate in Scotland about the dumping of Nuclear waste deep under the mountains,the Gov wanted to drill deep shafts in the hills of Galloway,their main argument was that these mountains were so safe that there was no danger to the public,there had been no sismec activity in the mountains ever recorded.During the last part of the public enquirey there was a small earth quake,kind of killed their argument.

Earth quakes do happen in the UK,we had one about a year ago in South Linconshire.

Santorini is a great place to visit if you enjoy volcanos.

im glad that i live in the UK,i feel sorry for the poor folks in Vietnam,indonesia,Phillipines and the pacific islands.
 
snowleopard said:
Sounds really alarming. I have to say that after reading about the Boxing day tsunami the first thing I would have done after feeling the earthquake was cast off and head out to sea at full speed.
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You'd have to be pretty quick - Pago Pago was hit about 11 minutes after the quake.
 
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