Tsunami?

[Fighting Conch]

A horrible story is unfolding with the Chile earthquake and tsumami radiating out. Thinking about the earthquake in Haiti I wonder what risk we have here in the Big Bend from an event in the Caribbean?


http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... unami.html

[FUTCHCAIRO]

HEY SKAGG, WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN. I HAVE NOT SEEN OR HEARD FROM YOU ON THE FORUM IN A LONG WHILE. I FINISHED THE SEA RAY I GOT FROM YOU AND IT TURNED OUT REALLY GOOD. IT TOOK ME ALMOST A YEAR TO SELL IT, EVEN IF IT LOOKED AND RAN LIKE A NEW BOAT. I WAS GOING TO USE IT FOR A SKII BOAT BUT THE GRAN KIDS JUST DIDN'T GET INTO THE SKIING BIT. SEE YA LATER
EARL, PA THE OLD MAN

[FUTCHCAIRO]

HEY SKAGG, WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN. I HAVE NOT SEEN OR HEARD FROM YOU ON THE FORUM IN A LONG WHILE. I FINISHED THE SEA RAY I GOT FROM YOU AND IT TURNED OUT REALLY GOOD. IT TOOK ME ALMOST A YEAR TO SELL IT, EVEN IF IT LOOKED AND RAN LIKE A NEW BOAT. I WAS GOING TO USE IT FOR A SKII BOAT BUT THE GRAN KIDS JUST DIDN'T GET INTO THE SKIING BIT. SEE YA LATER
EARL, PA THE OLD MAN

[Charles]

A horrible story is unfolding with the Chile earthquake and tsumami radiating out. Thinking about the earthquake in Haiti I wonder what risk we have here in the Big Bend from an event in the Caribbean?


http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... unami.html

U.S. Gulf Coast
In historic times, tsunami waves recorded along the Gulf Coast have all been less than 1 meter. Some of the reports are from the 1964 Gulf of Alaska earthquake recorded in Louisiana and Texas and are technically termed a seiche. A seiche is an oscillation of a body of water, typically caused by atmospheric disturbances, but in this case caused by the ground motion from the earthquake. Seiches can also occur in lakes from earthquake movements. There are a couple of early 20th-centutry reports of tsunami waves from Caribbean earthquakes along the Gulf Coast that are difficult to evaluate, but the wave heights all appear to be less than 1 meter.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/canit.php

While a tsunami can occur on any coast world wide, the much more prevalent threat here is coastal flooding due to storm surge. That part I high-lighted in blue; I have heard of that event, but haven't been able to find anything to validate it. I heard that after this event people were pulling bodies out of the tops of trees as far inland as Woodville, but I don't believe that. I think if it were true, the wave would have had to reach inland past where Capital Circle is now, and I think an event of that magnitude would have been much better documented.

[red_yakker]

I think we're more likely to experience something like we did during the storm of the century than an actual tsunami. We're fairly well protected from a tsunami resulting from a seismic shift here, but there are other things that cause tsunamis. A large enough meteor could bring us to our knees.