Giant Waves Week

April 21, 2009

I have a weakness for monster waves. I don't ride them (no WAY), but I remember many times riding to the beach on my bicycle when word got around that some winter storm was launching 30-footers over the jetties at Dana Point Harbor. Could watch that all day. Still could.

Giant Waves Week
Uploaded by larryohanlon

• Quiz: Giant Freaky Waves  
  What do you really know about the largest waves on the water planet? Test your knowledge here ...
• HowStuffWorks: Creating Monster Waves  
  No, it's not the wave elves out there paddling away, nor giants doing belly flops. Find out what it takes to make Earth's big waves ...
• Video: Surviving a Monster Wave Wipe-Out  
  Surfing huge waves can be deadly - and exhilarating. Same goes for the wipe outs. One of the sport's most extreme surfers talks James Williams through the experience ...
  
• Slide Show: Most Beautiful Waves  
  TreeHugger.com's look at some of the world's most stunning images of waves. Almost too beautiful to be true, but they are ...

• Blog: Largest Wave of the Year  
  Here it is, a 61-footer ridden by a crazy guy from South Africa. See the stunning image of the year's largest ride ...
• Puzzles: Largest Waves Ridden By Man  
  Surf's Up! Don't get wiped out trying to put together these puzzles of the world's largest waves ever ridden by man for the 2008/2009 season ...

Hunting Archeo-Tsunamis

October 30, 2008

The catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami four years ago has done one very important thing for tsunami researchers: Given them a view of exactly what a bona fide vast tsunami looks like in the sediments it leaves behind. That has led to some big advances in searching for signs of past tsunamis. There's a nice bit of news on this matter here from this week's Nature.

But here is the back story: For years the difficulty with studying tsunami sediments -- those created by the waves washing over barrier islands and into bays, for instance -- has been pinning them to tsunamis. How do you distinguish them from sediments left by powerful storms? Since researchers would like to know more about the "deep time" frequencies and risks of both big cyclones and tsunamis, it's imperative that they be separated in the sediments. That's where the 2004 event provided a windfall of data from a wide area all over the Indian Ocean. Among the most surprising finds was that the tsunami actually managed to increase the height of some of the Maldives islands (shown to the left). Wonders never cease!

A Tsunami Break

November 02, 2007

It's been earthquake weather again in the western and south Pacific Ocean. In the past week there was a 7.2 magnitude shaker in the Marianas and a half-dozen 5+ magnitude quakes, with the largest of them in the last 24 hours at Tonga . Thankfully, none of these created tsunamis, according to NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. My brother Dan is among the most thankful when this is the case. He lives on Maui and is always worried that one of these days a tsunami will come charging across the water and wipe out Lahaina, where he and his wife live with their two boys. He has recounted tsunami warnings or drills when the sirens sound and everybody rushes up to the airport. They hang out there, well above town and just below where the extinct volcano's slopes start to steepen. They talk with their friends and neighbors.  I dunno. Sounds to me like a good excuse to take a little time off. I say this because most of the time, no tsunami is coming. The sirens are, in a way, a reminder of how little we really know about what creates tsunamis. It's supposed to be a big movement at the bottom from a big quake rupture or the shoving of water by a giant undersea landslide, or even a volcano losing a flank into the sea and launching a wave. The problem is, as I understand it, no one is absolutely certain, since it's sort of impossible to actually watch it happening. So when a sizable oceanic quake happens, seismologists and oceanographers holler "Tsunami" if it's in a place prone to tsunamis. Then they watch the data from the regional wave gages to see if an abnormal wave has been formed. They don't call the "all clear" until nothing or only a small tsunami is registered. It may mean a lot of false alarms, but if my brother's description is any measure, that's okay.