NOAA tsunami satellite loop animation

[dando]

NOAA put together a satellite loop animation showing the worldwide impact of the tsunami. Links to the animation files in various formats are located near the bottom on the right of the following page:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2365.htm


The animation covers a period of 44 hours and 27 minutes of tsunami propagation. The tsunami reached the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States about the same time—some 28 hours after the earthquake struck on Dec. 26, 2004, at 00.59 UTC or 7:59 p.m. EST. The MOST model also was used to interpret the data for the tsunami's wave height from four satellites.

Please credit “NOAA” in your Chyron or in print.

Please note: "Right-click" the links below to download the very large files.


Absolutely incredible!

-Kevin

[indyfan31]

Wow, ya gotta love computers.

How'd you like to have been at the southern tip of South America when the two sides of the wave came together?

[anait]

How'd you like to have been at the southern tip of South America when the two sides of the wave came together?

Boggles the mind. :eek:

[Forza Lancia]

How'd you like to have been at the southern tip of South America when the two sides of the wave came together?

Incredible video. And, speaking of South America, here's a story about how the tsunami reached the Falklands (http://master.mx-targeting.com/mx/servlet/MXTarget?adcontext=http://my.yahoo.com/&contextpeak=0&contextcount=0&countrycodein=US&lastAdTime=1096985739|1096994552|1097065338|0|1096 721819|0|0|1097065159|0|&lastAdCode=3&cookie1=capdate%3D068%26capdatedy%3D1006%26lupgtry %3D1%26lupgid%3D173%26lupgdt%3D1095597380276%26lfl shdt%3D1090238339%26lstkywd%3Datlas+f1%26lstlogdt% 3D20041006%26cntp%3Ddsl%26capcntdy%3D2%26capcnt%3D 2%26&cookie2=lastlstd).

In case this rather old link doesn't work, here's part of the story (from MercoPress):

STRANGE tidal activity has been witnessed around the Falklands and is believed to be a result of the sea bed earthquake and tsunami which caused devastation in southeastern Asian countries and the east Africa coast.

Marilyn and Keith Grimmer at their home near the Fitzroy River witnessed several rapid rises and falls of tide early in the morning of December 27.
Marilyn said they were alerted by a noise similar to a waterfall - particularly unusual as it was a calm day. Marilyn said the water rose rapidly causing logger ducks to leave the water as though “turbo jetted” and they, along with Upland Geese and other wildlife, did not return to the water until all had settled down.

The tide rose and fell about a metre three times within the hour between 6 and 7am and twice more after.

The water was pouring over a 15 metre long jetty near the house which doesn’t happen even with high tides and gale force winds Marilyn told Penguin News.

. . . . .

Mike Harris of Stanley calculated that there is a distance of approximately 14,000 kilometers of clear water between Sumatra and the Falklands Islands.

He said it took 23½ hours for the tidal activity to reach the Falkland Islands, indicating that it travelled at an approximate average speed of 600 kilometers per hour. (PN).-

[G.]

How did Oz not get hammered? More to the point, how bad was it in Oz? Same for Antarctica.

[dando]

How did Oz not get hammered? More to the point, how bad was it in Oz? Same for Antarctica.
All I can guess is that the NW portion of Oz is far less populous than the E and S parts of Oz. Lots of desert in N and W of Oz. Based on the animation, they clearly got hit pretty good.

-Kevin

[nrc]

That was my guess. Has anyone seen anything on the actual magnitude of the wave activity along Australia's western coast?

Also, perhaps the fact that the wave motion was mostly perpendicular to the coast created more of a rip-tide affect than the inland surges we saw elsewhere.

[dando]

Also, perhaps the fact that the wave motion was mostly perpendicular to the coast created more of a rip-tide affect than the inland surges we saw elsewhere.
I saw mentions of minimal impact in early reports, but nothing definitive. It's possible that its geography helped minimize the impact, as you mentioned. I read a piece a week after the event about Diego Garcia, and how it was spared due to topological features:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.diegogarcia.ap/index.html

-Kevin