Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Was That A Tsunami?

Posted by timothy on from the about-time-new-jersey-got-some-bigger-waves dept.

Rebecka Schumann writes "The East Coast was hit by a tsunami earlier this month, but apparently, no one was the wiser. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a rare six-foot wave collided with the region in early June, a phenomenon currently under review. The wave is being considered 'complex' and is believed to have been caused 'the slumping at the continental shelf east of New Jersey' or a strong storm according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. While speculation regarding the mystery tsunami is rampant, another individual is claiming the surge could possibly be a 'meteotsunami,' meaning it was not caused by seismic activity but merely a change in meteorological conditions. Paul Whitmore, an NOAA tsunami center director, said a weather system's ability to change air pressure is enough to 'generate waves that act just like tsunamis.' The alleged tsunami caused three divers to be swept off rocks, two reportedly requiring medical attention after suffering from non life-threatening injuries due the storm. The tsunami, which also caused damage to boats and docks, reportedly lasted a total of five minutes." For less obtrusive advertising, see similar stories at The Verge, and at NPR.

47 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by Njoyda+Sauce · · Score: 5, Informative

    Learn to swim.

    --

    You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
    1. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Wait for the Canary Island volcano to collapse. Swimming won't be an option...moving 50 miles inland might not even help.

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
    2. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by wbr1 · · Score: 2

      Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
      Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
      Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still.
      Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    3. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Weird, the dipshits came first. I guess Maynard was close, though.

    4. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by davester666 · · Score: 1

      or move away from living immediately adjacent to a large body of water...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    5. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2

      Also from the article "many debris fields are 100km long by 1 mile DEEP". You aren't going to build a 1 mile tall wall.

      More over, the mid atlantic ridge is more than twice that high already, and this wave is going right over it with no issue. Maybe there's some small amount reduction in wave power that could be effected by stopping the debris, but the massive initial shock of the rock hitting the water is still going to create a massive tsunami.

      Or did you mean to just hold the mountain in place against volcanic forces? If so, good luck with that...

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
    6. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      From the same song.. "Fuck L Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones..."

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    7. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I certainly be willing to have the US government pay for part of it.

      ha! - they defunded the sensor study to keep track of the separation of the two sides of the mountain years ago. Also, we're not allowed to talk about that one in the new world of asymmetric risks.

      FYI, there's a tool online that will show projected inundations of various tsunami types (who's got better Google Fu than me at the moment?). The wave in question will lap up against the east side of the mountain ridge just to my east. I probably need to worry about seismic impacts here (81m inland) but will stay dry and not get crushed by the shockwave.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    8. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      That would have to be one hell of a thick wall. What makes you think that the debris won't just flow right on over it, or take the wall with it? I don't want to think what it would cost.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    9. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by commodore73 · · Score: 1

      How do government contractors make money from that though?

    10. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      That's not the point. The point is for you to watch the circus, while the government (and its crony contractors) pinch the pie.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    11. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Yeah I half expect to be turned away at the border the next time I go to the US. But honestly I am disgusted with what is happening in that country. You can go ahead and put that in my file, NSA.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    12. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by jbwolfe · · Score: 1

      I've now lived long enough to see Tool covered on /.

      --
      Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
    13. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by commodore73 · · Score: 1

      I actually have more trouble getting into Canada for some reason (I am a US citizen). One time customs or immigration or whatever asked me to search my hard latop for "media" files. I think they were looking for child porn or maybe copyright violations? It definitely felt like a violation to me. What would have happened if I had refused? What would they have done if they found something? I hate what has happened to this country in such a short time, not that it was perfect when I was a kid (I just wasn't aware of the issues).

    14. Re:I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied... by khallow · · Score: 1

      It'd probably be cheaper to cool the volcano off with a vast flood of sea water and then bulldoze it down to sea level.

  2. One of my earliest memories by istartedi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was four years old. We were at Myrtle Beach, SC. We were on dry sand, quite far back. I seem to recall the waves being large and clean, with very little chop; but not threatening to people up on the beach. A wave charged in, all the way to the boardwalk. The beach is relatively flat there, so the actual depth was only about a foot. My mother picked me up. My sister and my father were large enough to fend for themselves. I have no idea if anybody was hurt. The beach cleared. In the panic, my yellow plastic shovel was lost; but I spied it from up on the balcony of the motel. "Mommy, can you pllllleeeeease get it?". She went down, but another wave or a person must have taken it.

    Since then, I've heard of at least one other incident like this. I think it was in Florida.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:One of my earliest memories by Jmc23 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Since then, I've heard of at least one other incident like this. I think it was in Florida.

      Which begs the question: For what nefarious plot does the Ocean need so many yellow plastic shovels?

      --
      Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
    2. Re:One of my earliest memories by Like2Byte · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was four years old. We were at Myrtle Beach, SC. We were on dry sand, quite far back. I seem to recall the waves being large and clean, with very little chop; but not threatening to people up on the beach. A wave charged in, all the way to the boardwalk. The beach is relatively flat there, so the actual depth was only about a foot. My mother picked me up. My sister and my father were large enough to fend for themselves. I have no idea if anybody was hurt. The beach cleared. In the panic, my yellow plastic shovel was lost; but I spied it from up on the balcony of the motel. "Mommy, can you pllllleeeeease get it?". She went down, but another wave or a person must have taken it.

      Since then, I've heard of at least one other incident like this. I think it was in Florida.

      So...let me see if I got this straight. Two kids lost a yellow plastic shovel at Myrtle Beach, SC?

    3. Re:One of my earliest memories by istartedi · · Score: 1

      So...let me see if I got this straight. Two kids lost a yellow plastic shovel at Myrtle Beach, SC?

      From this, I'm pretty sure
      I can infer
      that you are her.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    4. Re:One of my earliest memories by LunaticTippy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Waves have some complex behavior. There are ocean swells coming from various directions which can interact with each other, giving constructive and destructive interference. There are also locally generated wind wave effects which interact with the swells. All of this is interacting with previous waves backward motion. On a particular day at a particular area you might be getting 5' breakers on average, but they will vary from nearly nothing to occasional 8' waves. It wasn't uncommon to see the occasional monster wave, double or more the average.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    5. Re:One of my earliest memories by trybywrench · · Score: 1

      When I was around 14 I was visiting family in Daytona Beach, we were walking on the beach at night after eating dinner listening to the waves for an hour or so then went home. Some time that night a very large wave came ashore and reached all the way up the beach past where the cars drive and where everyone sets up (umbrellas, towels, etc ). The next day, you could see how far it reached by the stains from the water in the otherwise white sand. I distinctly remember the weather man on the news saying it was possibly a "rogue" wave which was the first time I had ever heard the phrase. IIRC there were no storms that night.

      --
      I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
    6. Re:One of my earliest memories by trybywrench · · Score: 2

      Found this in Wikipedia

      "On July 3, 1992, a 27 mile long Rogue wave hit the Volusia County beaches. The wave's range was from Ormond Beach in the north, to New Smyrna Beach on the south. The crest was 18 feet high and centered at Daytona Beach. Sailboats crashed ashore onto cars and many people suffered cuts and bruises from glass and debris. Two people required hospitalization and 200 vehicles were damaged. 75 injuries were reported. The prevailing theory is that an underwater landslide caused the rogue wave, making this wave into a type of tsunami, although others have theorized that it was the result of a squall line."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rogue_waves

      I guess it was a rogue wave..

      --
      I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
    7. Re:One of my earliest memories by istartedi · · Score: 1

      That sounds familiar. It's lucky the one at Myrtle Beach wasn't that big. I've never been able to find any information about it. It sounds like the kind of thing the local chamber of commerce doesn't exactly want to tout. "Come to our broad sandy beaches, and subject yourself to a 1:20000 chance of being terrified out of your mind by something powerful enough to knock you over and drown your baby".

      Maybe it's sitting there on some local librarian's microfiche though. OK... confession time. You're looking for summer of 1972. Most likely August. Yes. I'm that old.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    8. Re:One of my earliest memories by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      Even worse, rogue waves are not just a sailor's tall tale. One 115ft wave on your ship can ruin your whole day.

  3. Obviously due to global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And Obama.

    1. Re:Obviously due to global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to blame the Slashdot editors.

    2. Re:Obviously due to global warming by flyingfsck · · Score: 1, Funny

      Obama? I thought global warming was caused by Al Gore.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    3. Re:Obviously due to global warming by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      Obama? I thought global warming was caused by Al Gore.

      Listening to conservatives I have learned that *everything* is Obama's fault.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    4. Re:Obviously due to global warming by dickplaus · · Score: 1

      Obama? I thought global warming was caused by Al Gore.

      Listening to conservatives I have learned that *everything* is Obama's fault.

      Luckily, in turn *everything* can then be blamed on Bush then.

  4. Tsunami Warnings... by khr · · Score: 1

    I grew up on the Oregon coast and whenever there was a tsunami warning hordes of people would come out from the valley inland to see it. Luckily for them there never was anything to see...

    1. Re:Tsunami Warnings... by Squidlips · · Score: 1

      In New England lots of people try to go to the shore to watch the waves from hurricanes. So much so that the police try to block off access to the shore. But some still sneak through.

    2. Re:Tsunami Warnings... by Miamicanes · · Score: 3, Informative

      In almost every case, the big, impressive waves arrive LONG before the storm itself, and the weather deteriorates & becomes unpleasant long before it actually becomes *dangerous* to be within sight of the waves. A hurricane isn't an event, it's a process. A *tornado* is an event... the storm quickly rolls in, the funnel drops from the sky (while the condensation cloud forms and makes it visible from the ground up), and it's *there*. Hurricanes? Hours, if not DAYS, of getting bitchslapped by rainbands that generally get worse and worse, until the eyewall FINALLY makes landfall and passes nearby (or directly above). Then, you get hit with a tornado-like windfield, have a few minutes of calm, another hit by the windfield (in the opposite direction), followed by a few more hours/days of the process in reverse.

      Now... the authorities might certainly *prefer* that everyone just leave instead of making their jobs more complicated by having to manage tourists and traffic as a hurricane is approaching, but it's not like the beach suddenly becomes a lethal place to be just because a hurricane is approaching and will be there in a few hours.

      The local road network matters, too. In Southwest Florida, yeah... there's a ~25 mile stretch of beach between Bonita Springs and Fort Myers with a 2-lane bridge at each end, another 10-15 miles of traffic just to get to I-75, and literally no other route to the mainland in between. Getting everyone "off the islands" is a major exercise in logistics. Contrast that with South Beach, where there's a 6-lane freeway and multiple other roads connecting it to the mainland, and a quarter of the population drives ashore every weekday over the span of 2-3 hours just getting to work. If anything, at the "Miami" end, the problem isn't evacuating Miami Beach to the mainland... it's the fact that people who live in western Dade County -- many of whom vividly remember being lied to by the government(*) -- trying to evacuate to Orlando (or worse, get frustrated when northbound I-75, Turnpike, and I-95 turn into parking lots, and head WEST across I-75 towards Naples, not realizing that they're going to encounter even WORSE northbound traffic on 75 long before they even make it across the county line).

      (*)When Andrew hit, the county authorities were ADAMANT that it was going to directly hit South Beach, because they wanted to scare people who lived there into evacuating. The National Hurricane Center wasn't happy about it, but grudgingly went along with it because the county's rationale sounded reasonable. The problem was, it was a total lie from the first press release, and they knew it. As a result, people who lived in places like northern Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Brickell, and downtown Miami fled SOUTH to the homes of friends and family members... and ended up evacuating INTO the area that was the hardest-hit. NOBODY who remembers Andrew trusts the authorities anymore. It's 80% of the reason why I learned how to run GFS myself and got into stormchasing in the first place... so I could independently run my own sims and do my own fact-checking instead of being forced to take the authorities' word at face value and hope they weren't lying again.

    3. Re:Tsunami Warnings... by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      > i don't know who would have evacuated south

      Demographics. Remember, it was 1992... "two cities, sharing the same patch of ground, but otherwise existing in parallel, largely oblivious to each other's existence". Statistically, if you were a gringo from east-central Dade or South Beach, your friends and family members were overwhelmingly likely to live south of Miller Drive. North of 836, the area west of 27th avenue was like a foreign country, and the area east of 27th avenue was a riot-torn warzone. Yeah, that's an exaggeration... but not much. Miami was a VERY different place 21 years ago.

      The anger came from the fact that lots of people were told that they were going to die unless they evacuated, went to stay with friends in areas that were NOT in evacuation zones, got hit directly and went through complete HELL, then came home to neighborhoods that were barely affected... and found out that government officials had known for at least a day before landfall that Andrew's eyewall wasn't going anywhere NEAR South Beach or downtown unless some truly freakish path change occurred that would have been inconceivable under every known model.

      I have friends who worked for Dade County. The topic of Miami's lopsided demographics came up over and over again in private during the 48 hours before Andrew's landfall. County officials knew damn well where everyone was going to go if they evacuated, and intentionally decided it was more important to be politically correct & pretend people were going to evacuate to public shelters in neighborhoods they normally wouldn't even DRIVE THROUGH than to tell people point blank, "Look , we know your friends and family members live down south... don't go there, because they're more likely to get hit directly than YOU are. If you don't want to evacuate to Liberty City or Hialeah, go to Orlando."

  5. Re:Obtrusive ? how about a security risk ? by Phreakiture · · Score: 1

    Just install Ghostery and be done with it.

    --
    www.wavefront-av.com
  6. Seems a bit odd... by PuddleBoy · · Score: 1

    "The wave is being considered 'complex' and is believed to have been caused 'the slumping at the continental shelf east of New Jersey' or a strong storm according to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center."

    How is it that they need a center on the West Coast to determine that it was something off the coast of Jersey that caused it?

    Are they spending too much time watching the Jersey Shore and not enough time watching the shore of Jersey?

  7. Was that a tsunami, by fredrated · · Score: 3, Funny

    or are you glad to see me?

  8. Etymology by mooingyak · · Score: 1

    I'm just a bit fascinated by the components of the word "meteotsunami".

    And would a tsunami with seismic origins be a seismitsunami? Or maybe a geotsunami? Either way, it's not a megatsunami until we've had a million of them.

    --
    William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    1. Re:Etymology by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      When I saw "Meteotsunami", I first thought that this is a tsunami caused by a large meteorite impact. No, scratch that. It actually sounded a little bit too much like a name of a new Final Fantasy attack combo.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Etymology by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      When I saw "Meteotsunami", I first thought that this is a tsunami caused by a large meteorite impact. No, scratch that. It actually sounded a little bit too much like a name of a new Final Fantasy attack combo.

      I don't know about a Meterotsunami, but a Metrotsunami is caused by Poseidon being frustrated by the interface on his new Windows 8 tablet.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  9. Federal Disaster Zone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Quick, declare it a Federal Disaster Zone so the rest of the country can pay for the damages to the uninsured.

    1. Re:Federal Disaster Zone! by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Quick, declare it a Federal Disaster Zone so the rest of the country can pay for the damages to the uninsured.

      That area already got $60B of your emotion money.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  10. Or a rogue wave (not the group) by whitroth · · Score: 1

    Six foot is *easily* in that range.

                mark

    1. Re:Or a rogue wave (not the group) by CaptQuark · · Score: 2

      This was not a single wave. If you read the article it said the water level dropped for one or two minutes, then came rushing back to the height of six feet.

  11. Re:Article by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    That means a 6 foot wave would recede pretty quickly; so how did this 6 foot wave stay up for several minutes?

    I read a story a couple nights ago that was just quoting some fishermen (not divers - divers aren't on jettys) who got knocked over and offered no other details.

    When a shore fisherman says it's a six food wave, that means it was as tall as him. He doesn't care about the physics of it. They didn't say anything about the land being flooded for several minutes, they just said they got knocked over. Getting banged up against the rocks is a good way to need some medical treatment and throw in a box of lures and you've got an ugly situation.

    I suspect the 'several minutes' thing will turn out to be a result of some measuring buoys showing a higher water level over that time while the wave 'bathtubbed' for a bit while draining.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  12. Re:Obtrusive ? how about a security risk ? by magic+maverick+ · · Score: 1

    RequestPolicy + NoScript works better, and neither are run by advertising companies.

    --
    HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
  13. Re:Obtrusive ? how about a security risk ? by Phreakiture · · Score: 1

    Cool; I'll check it out. Point is, there are options.

    --
    www.wavefront-av.com
  14. Re:Article by khallow · · Score: 1

    Sounds like it wasn't a wave of the sort you're thinking of. I don't know what the wavelengths of tsunami are, but they last several minutes as well.