Any tsunami video I look at barely looks like a 20 feet wave hitting shore. But wikipedia tells me there have been dozens of 100+ feet tsunamis even in the last 10 years.
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A tsunami isn’t a wall of water the height of a skyscraper towering over a city. That’s not how it works. tsunami waves like the 2004 one hit the shore with the height of maybe 2 cars stacked onto each other.
A tsunami is sort of analogous to floodwaters, except it’s flowing from the direction of the ocean.
Think of an oceangoing earthquake generated tsunami as more like the world’s fastest rising tide, vs a traditional wave.
It’s a column of moving water that goes from the surface all the way down to the ocean floor.
This column travels at crazy speeds across open ocean, basically jetliner speed is the common comparison. Boats out in the open water may only experience a 50cm or 1m vertical change in the water surface, practically unnoticeable
Then as the ground under it lifts coming up towards shore, the tsunami bunches up and slows down, which will cause a raise in height above the water around it. As another commenter mentioned, the tsunami wave top “breaks” much further out than traditional wind waves coming into shore would, so by the time it actually hits the shoreline it does so as a “bore” (the white frothy wall of water and carried debris right at the front). Behind the bore, a tsunami has a far longer wave length than any other wave, which is part of what makes them so destructive. Where other waves the surface level returns to normal quickly, a tsunami wave will continue to rise like a very strong tide, behind the bore, inundating everything.
Just because a tsunami doesn’t look like the mountains of water you’d see in a movie, don’t underestimate its power. Even 10ft of water
Think of an oceangoing earthquake generated tsunami as more like the world’s fastest rising tide, vs a traditional wave.
It’s a column of moving water that goes from the surface all the way down to the ocean floor.
This column travels at crazy speeds across open ocean, basically jetliner speed is the common comparison. Boats out in the open water may only experience a 50cm or 1m vertical change in the water surface, practically unnoticeable
Then as the ground under it lifts coming up towards shore, the tsunami bunches up and slows down, which will cause a raise in height above the water around it. As another commenter mentioned, the tsunami wave top “breaks” much further out than traditional wind waves coming into shore would, so by the time it actually hits the shoreline it does so as a “bore” (the white frothy wall of water and carried debris right at the front). Behind the bore, a tsunami has a far longer wave length than any other wave, which is part of what makes them so destructive. Where other waves the surface level returns to normal quickly, a tsunami wave will continue to rise like a very strong tide, behind the bore, inundating everything.
Just because a tsunami doesn’t look like the mountains of water you’d see in a movie, don’t underestimate its power. Even 10ft of water
Doesn’t work that way. Tsunamis aren’t about height. Never were. They’re instead a horizontal wave that keeps on coming over the beach or harbor, and keeps going inland. A tell tale sign is that the water moves very far out to sea, exposing mud flats you normally wouldn’t ever see. If you do, God help you! You are seriously in the wrong place, because a horizontal wave will rush inwards, and take out the entire beach!
A tsunami isn’t a wall of water the height of a skyscraper towering over a city. That’s not how it works. tsunami waves like the 2004 one hit the shore with the height of maybe 2 cars stacked onto each other.
A tsunami is sort of analogous to floodwaters, except it’s flowing from the direction of the ocean.
Doesn’t work that way. Tsunamis aren’t about height. Never were. They’re instead a horizontal wave that keeps on coming over the beach or harbor, and keeps going inland. A tell tale sign is that the water moves very far out to sea, exposing mud flats you normally wouldn’t ever see. If you do, God help you! You are seriously in the wrong place, because a horizontal wave will rush inwards, and take out the entire beach!
Think of an oceangoing earthquake generated tsunami as more like the world’s fastest rising tide, vs a traditional wave.
It’s a column of moving water that goes from the surface all the way down to the ocean floor.
This column travels at crazy speeds across open ocean, basically jetliner speed is the common comparison. Boats out in the open water may only experience a 50cm or 1m vertical change in the water surface, practically unnoticeable
Then as the ground under it lifts coming up towards shore, the tsunami bunches up and slows down, which will cause a raise in height above the water around it. As another commenter mentioned, the tsunami wave top “breaks” much further out than traditional wind waves coming into shore would, so by the time it actually hits the shoreline it does so as a “bore” (the white frothy wall of water and carried debris right at the front). Behind the bore, a tsunami has a far longer wave length than any other wave, which is part of what makes them so destructive. Where other waves the surface level returns to normal quickly, a tsunami wave will continue to rise like a very strong tide, behind the bore, inundating everything.
Just because a tsunami doesn’t look like the mountains of water you’d see in a movie, don’t underestimate its power. Even 10ft of water
I think most people are missin the mark on this one. The 100+ foot tsunamis I have hear about are all on remote mountainous areas. I’ve hear of a couple in northern bc. One in 2020 or so that was a real big one. But they notices it a month later when flying over the remote areas. Now what you need to get a 300+ foot tall wave is a bottle neck of some sort. The specific one I’m thinking about was cause by a large land slide into a lake pushing all the water in the lake down a narrower steam/river and there being evidence of trees getting washed away way up the hill side. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-landslide-triggered-100-metre-tall-lake-tsunami-study-shows-1.6401469 that’s a link to that story.
Doesn’t work that way. Tsunamis aren’t about height. Never were. They’re instead a horizontal wave that keeps on coming over the beach or harbor, and keeps going inland. A tell tale sign is that the water moves very far out to sea, exposing mud flats you normally wouldn’t ever see. If you do, God help you! You are seriously in the wrong place, because a horizontal wave will rush inwards, and take out the entire beach!
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