Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami

Iphtashu Fitz writes "This week the UK's Royal Navy presented images taken by the survey ship HMS Scott of the damage to the floor of the Indian Ocean that triggered the tsunami two months ago. The Scott has a high-resolution multi-beam sonar that let it generate highly detailed images of the sea floor, some 200m to 5000m below sea level. An image showing the scale of the damage, and the full presentation made by the Commanding Officer of HMS Scott (38MB PowerPoint) are available. The presentation contains a number of images that have more detail than those available on the websites."

Comments

***ERROR! Ignorance tolerance overload!

[dillon_rinker]

damage to the floor of the Indian Ocean

BZZZT! The surface of the earth cannot be damaged. Changed, yes, but not damaged. Unless you're suggesting that we need to get back to Pangaea somehow.

Look, there are natural tectonic processes that have been going on for as long as the earth existed. Volcanoes and earthquakes are CONSTANTLY reshaping the surface of the earth. THIS IS NOT DAMAGE. This is normal behavior for the ecosystem.

Next we'll be hearing that the predator/prey relationship needs to be banned because it damages animal populations, or that animals need to poop more because the coprophilic bacterial populations are abnormally low.

Re:***ERROR! Ignorance tolerance overload!

[Z4rd0Z]

Dude, calm down. Maybe the choice of words wasn't the most scientific, but if you see the effects of a big earthquake or volcano, it's kind of hard not to see it as damage, whether it is a normal occurance or not. I remember as a kid when Mt. St. Helens blew and completely devastated the surroundings. Sure, over time it will be just a little bump in history, but for the people affected, it's damage. Is this a reason to start jumping up and down and calling people ignorant?

Re:***ERROR! Ignorance tolerance overload!

[Metapsyborg]

BZZZT! The surface of the earth cannot be damaged. Changed, yes, but not damaged. Unless you're suggesting that we need to get back to Pangaea somehow.

Look, there are natural tectonic processes that have been going on for as long as the earth existed. Volcanoes and earthquakes are CONSTANTLY reshaping the surface of the earth. THIS IS NOT DAMAGE. This is normal behavior for the ecosystem.

Come on now, you're not even attempting to understand what they are talking about. I don't know how this was modded insightful, but it is damage my friend. Animals died, habitats were destroyed, plant life uprooted/moved/destroyed, rare/endangered species killed (not that I know for a fact, can't see the webpage). This is damage. It doesn't matter that these animals would die eventually anyway, it doesn't matter that in 200,000 years that piece of ocean floor won't exist anymore.

Your cocky presumptiousness does not bely intelligence, it belies a refusal to understand something. Damaged, changed, modified, whatever it all means the same thing. And gee, the two "ridiculous" examples you list probably already happen somewhere in the world! People hunt to keep animal populations down (those bastard deer come to mind); I'm sure somewhere in the world predators are being kept away from herbavors to "protect" the herbavors from being "damaged". Hmm, maybe we should just ban the word "damaged", because obviously every thing that happens in the universe is due to nature. Therefore everything that happens would have happened eventually anyway, and it can not possibly be considered damage because it is "all in the natural order of things."

Why don't you use your self-proclaimed knowledge for something useful, like understanding that words can mean multiple things and not everything people write about is a semantic argument?

tsunami WAS the effect, not the cause

[Anonymous Coward]

Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami

I think people really really like saying "tsunami". Too bad most don't even pronounce it the right way.

The floor was not the effect of the tsunami, it was the effect of the earthquake, of which the tsunami was also an effect.

See, I like saying "tsunami" too!

tsunami. tsunami. tsunami.

this is stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

This is getting ridiculous. Why does Slashdot continue to post stories with direct links to massive files that are hosted on sites that will obviously be killed instantly, once users start clicking the link? Would it be too much to ask to begin mirroring the files, or provide a torrent?

These stories that reference some outside source are useless half of the time, because the source instantly becomes unavailable for a few hours until some new story comes up. It's getting really old.

Cause and Effect

[irhtfp]

It should be pointed out that the headline of this /. story is misleading. (Yeah, I know, what else is new?)

Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami

The damage to the ocean floor was a result of the cause of the tsunami - not the effect thereof. Tsunamis do not damage the ocean floor until they get into very shallow water (i.e. the coastline).

Re:Short attention span

[timster]

I'm sure the reduced media coverage is why President Bush asked Congress to approve $600 million in new money for tsunami relief. That was... Wednesday: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/09/tsunami.aid/index .html

The lack of media coverage is just because nothing new is happening. The event has happened, and now the affected areas are entering a long rebuilding process. We're still helping them. It's just not a new story anymore. There's a reason it's called the news.