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The Largest Recorded Tsunami Was 50 Years Ago
An anonymous reader writes "July marks the 50th anniversary of the world's largest tsunami — a 1,720-foot-tall wave in Lituya Bay, Alaska. It was triggered by a chain reaction of events that began with a magnitude 7.7 earthquake on the Fairweather Fault, which dislodged a rock fall of 40 million cubic yards, that fell 3,000 feet and splashed into the northwest end of Lituya Bay to generate the wave. This article includes survivor accounts, maps, a satellite image, and photos taken right after the event." To be fair, eyewitness accounts put the height of the wave as it came toward their boats at perhaps 100 feet. The tsunami scoured the land of vegetation and soil to a height of 1,720 feet above sea level, however.
There was a scary program on UK TV a few years back talking about the possibility of something similar happening in the canary islands that would wipe out the eastern seaboard of the US - a little research seems to suggest this is greatly overhyped however.
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Wrong. I refer you to http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850
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http://www.google.com/search?q=1720+foot+in+meters
from TFA
"The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet (524 meters) above sea level. This is the highest wave that has ever been known."
"The majority is always sane, Louis." -- Nessus
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5,280 feet.
I think, after reading the article a bit They get that 1720 foot wave from the location directly across the water from the rock slide that stripped vegetation to an elevation of 1720 feet.
"The spur of land between Gilbert Inlet and Lituya Bay that received the full force of the wave. Trees and soil were stripped away to an elevation of 1720 feet above the surface of Lituya Bay. Photo by D.J. Miller, United States Geological Survey."
You even get a picture.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
Without another unit of measurement, I'd have to say a kilometer is approximately 1 kilometer.
This type of tsunami is the exact same as what is predicted will ultimately wipe out most of the Eastern Seaboard. It will make Katrina and even the tsunami that hit in the Indian Ocean look like a cake walk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/aug/10/science.spain
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I blame women. No woman wants to go from weighing 95 units to weighing 209 units.
Great theory, but there are 2.2lbs in a kilo, not 2.2kg in a lb.
So a 95lb woman weighs about 43kg, not 209kg.
If you look at the map of the damage, the 1725 figure comes from the slope directly opposite where the honking huge chunk of rock fell 3000' feet to land in the water - which probably displaced all the water straight up and over the spur where the 1725 figure was recorded and then damage along the rest of the bay was more in line with the 100' figure.
Here's Latuya Bay in Google Maps
Kurt Vonnegut: "If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind."
Well, see for yourself. :) :)
Seriously, I've seen a TV program on the 'disaster' and from the ground the you can see where there is an band of young trees around shores of the the bay and older trees further up the slope, but that's about the only visual evidence remaining.
It's the new marketing campaign for Viagra.
"Go from 5 inches to 12.7 centimeters over night!"
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
The nautical mile makes some sense. It's one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I believe that we developed a decimal number system because of our fingers. And when the number system developed so did our language. Our adult brains are tuned to decimal numbers because that is the language and system we were educated with. I don't believe that the brains of children are specially tuned to accept a decimal system.
In modern life we don't often use our fingers for manipulating large numbers. In fact our technology works more naturally in binary or hexadecimal. The only thing keeping us using decimal is our language and history, not our fingers.
So the magical thing about SI is not its use of base ten, but rather its use of a consistent base regardless of unit. The cumbersome thing about Imperial units is that the base changes when measuring different things: 12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard, 1760 yards to the mile, 16 ounces to the pound, 4 quarts to the gallon. It's hard to remember which base applies to each unit and it's hard to constantly switch among bases when doing calculations.
Incidentally, the US was one of the first seventeen countries in the world to officially ratify the metric system in 1893, but the states just keep striking down any metrication legislation.
Well, if you guys want to keep using the limbs of long-dead kings to measure things instead of unified and standardised measures that make sense and reduce calculation errors, then go right ahead - it's your right as an American!
1 liter is a volume of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm.