Chile earthquake!!!

[pogiguy05]

Just checking if everyone has heard that they issued a tsunami warning for the entire west coast for 24 hours I believe.

[ktb]

It sounds like ours is just an advisory, meaning we should be aware but they don't expect anything to happen. At least that's what KOMO 4 said . . .

[pogiguy05]

Yeh I see that now but you never know what kind of crazy thing it could effect current and surge even if a little.

[ktb]

But how often do you get to be in the water and experience it? As long as we're not in real danger, I say why not?

[spatman]

i'm certainly not a geologist, seismologist, or tsumaniologist, but how does and earthquake in chile trigger tsunami warnings up here?

[Sockmonkey]

I was up at 0300 to begin preps for the big wave... sirens started going off at 0600 but I was already down at work. It was obviously a non event. More on life on a volatile rock in the middle of the pacific later...

Look at the graphic below from this webpage:

If you have questions about how the tsunami warning buoy system works, I'm intimate (down to the board level) with the guts of those things. Here's a photo I took of one being launched from a NOAA ship:

Of course since most of all the good tsunami science in the US happens in Seattle at PMEL there's a good chance there is an actual Tsunamiologist on NWDC.

-Eric

[Geek]

There was a VERY weird current at Les Davis today at around the time they said "it" would get here.. don't know if it was related or not but never had current's going in two directions at once at LD before..

[spatman]

there's a good chance there is an actual Tsunamiologist on NWDC.

other than yourself, of course.

[Sockmonkey]

Jackoff of all trades... master of none.

-Eric

there's a good chance there is an actual Tsunamiologist on NWDC.

other than yourself, of course.

[Mattleycrue76]

There was a VERY weird current at Les Davis today at around the time they said "it" would get here.. don't know if it was related or not but never had current's going in two directions at once at LD before..

Well my expert status on this is ah none - but I was just looking at this on google earth and I just don't see how a big wave could make itself through the straight of Juan De Fuca, turn a "corner" and head back south to cause a two way current at LD. If this is indeed possible I'd be fascinated to know how

[Sockmonkey]

Maybe we've got an actual physical oceanographer on NWDC that can explain something with authority. I'm really not a tsunami expert... nor do I play one on TV but if you look at just how much water was moved around from this quake you might rethink your mental model. I really really dig that animation.

Two way current or not... the Pacific's tidal changes (stupid moon!) are slight in contrast to the "waves" that were generated yesterday in Chile and yet the the tides make a crapload of water move through the straight and down to the south sound. The tidal type currents make the same "corner" don't they? I guess why wouldn't the sound be effected in the same way by a "tsunami"? (and yes I'm making air quotes as I type)

I've seen weird currents out in open ocean where the surface layer is going one way and the water under it moves in a different direction. This sheering effect is baffling. Now imagine you have layers of water going in different direction and add the fact that the water is moving past a land mass with the steep/deep underwater slopes of the sound... two different currents seems possible given how confusing the water can get in the big assed fjord that is puget sound. Or possibly the perceived two different currents were actually an eddy (or two colliding) where the water swirls around inexplicably. Eddy currents spin off larger water movements all the time and they happen in open water even on very small scales... so why not in a closed system too? Next time you're getting your Mr. Bubble on try moving the water around the tub and see what it does. Maybe a rogue eddy is how the brief and spooky redondo current is explained.

Who knows if Geek really felt a tsunami at Les Davis but it does seem plausible if not a little silly.

-Eric the king of anecdotal evidence only useful for party small talk and interweb forums

There was a VERY weird current at Les Davis today at around the time they said "it" would get here.. don't know if it was related or not but never had current's going in two directions at once at LD before..

Well my expert status on this is ah none - but I was just looking at this on google earth and I just don't see how a big wave could make itself through the straight of Juan De Fuca, turn a "corner" and head back south to cause a two way current at LD. If this is indeed possible I'd be fascinated to know how

[Mattleycrue76]

It's not that I doubt at all that there were some weird current at LD. Anyone who has spent time in the Sound will agree that currents can behave strangely. The reason I doubt it is that a wave and a current are two fundimentally different things. In one case water actually moves fome one point to another (current), in the other energy is transferred through the water in the form of a wave. The water didn't actually move from Chile to Australia, the wave did. The wave is directional so unless it bounces off of something it will keep going in a straight line until it is interrupted. Kinda like a water drop in a barrel. If there really was a tsunami size wave it would rise up as it got closer to shore (shallower) and break. At that point some of the water returning to the ocean would probably form another much smaller wave going back the other way but it would be miniscule by comparison to the original wave. I'm gonna stop running my soupcooler now before someone who actually knows something comes on here and points out my logical inneptitude.

[lamont]

It's not that I doubt at all that there were some weird current at LD. Anyone who has spent time in the Sound will agree that currents can behave strangely. The reason I doubt it is that a wave and a current are two fundimentally different things. In one case water actually moves fome one point to another (current), in the other energy is transferred through the water in the form of a wave. The water didn't actually move from Chile to Australia, the wave did. The wave is directional so unless it bounces off of something it will keep going in a straight line until it is interrupted. Kinda like a water drop in a barrel. If there really was a tsunami size wave it would rise up as it got closer to shore (shallower) and break. At that point some of the water returning to the ocean would probably form another much smaller wave going back the other way but it would be miniscule by comparison to the original wave. I'm gonna stop running my soupcooler now before someone who actually knows something comes on here and points out my logical inneptitude.

The tsunami wave which hit hawaii was basically an appx 5 foot tidal change that fluctuated with a 20-40 minute period. If you check out the video of what happened at hilo yesterday you can see all the currents flowing into and out with a 20-40 minute period.

Now, consider that happening in puget sound with something on the order of normal daily tidal variations occurring every 20-40 minutes instead of every 12 hours and the currents that you would need to get through the narrows or the inlet to fuel that kind of rise/fall in tidal height. That mass of water has to come from somewhere, so currents will flow, just like they flow during normal daily tidal variation.

We may have seen some inconsequential changes in tidal height in puget sound yesterday, but in the inlet it may have had some scuba-significant effect on current timing and velocity (had yesterday been one of the ideal days to dive the governor, the tsunami might have messed that up).

[Sockmonkey]

Here's one way to look at it... the series of waves (there was more than one each about 15-20 minutes apart) generated from the earthquake themselves were fairly benign in the grand scheme of things. We're talking about a measured water column height change of a meter or so. If you were out on a boat on the ocean even in a larger tsunami you would be quite safe and maybe not even notice a change. It isn't until these waves approach a shallow area near land do they become dangerous. In the same way that the long swells that break on the north shores of Maui and Oahu only become interesting near shore. When a large standing wave approaches land it could create a perceived current. If you look at the news footage of Hilo bay here on the big island during the tsunami event you see relatively large exchanges of water near the shore in area that typically has a tidal height measured in inches. In fact whole areas of the bay were exposed as the water rushed out. The waves never really "broke" per se. In my mind's eye this is how I imagine a series of waves pushing in toward the straight of Johnny De Fuccer could be perecived as a current further down in your fjord.

The simplified ocean model in my brain could be... and probably is... dead wrong.

-Eric

[pensacoladiver]

We were in Ocean Park yesterday getting ready for the Razor clam dig. The Sherrif was handing out flyers to everyone asking them to not be on the beach.

I had just drove 6 hours to get some clams, so come hell or high water I was getting some. About 1,000 other people felt the same way too as the place was packed.

In the 4 hours I was digging (right when the waves were scheduled to hit), I didn't notice anything out of the norm.

We did have a plan to run up the lighthouse steps if we saw the water level drop way low. Of course, the car would have been swept away, but ehhh.

All in all got 31 clams on our first day of digging.

[Linedog]

We were doing a night dive at Redondo last night about 7:15, so I can say at least I was diving during a warning!

[60south]

The wave is directional so unless it bounces off of something it will keep going in a straight line until it is interrupted. Kinda like a water drop in a barrel.

Yeah, but the energy can also diffract around corners. Plus, it's traveling over a spheroidal, rotating surface. No straight lines.

My mental ocean model looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Mmmmm, pasta.