Right before we went to bed on the 10th around 10pm, we flipped the TV to CNN and saw the start of the horrors of the tsunamis hitting Japan. We watched from then until 1AM (CNN does a great job reporting breaking news). By that time we realized that tsunamis were being predicted on the US West Coast – right where we were. We were not worried about our safety since we were about 100' up in elevation at our campsite. We expected that if a tsunami of any magnitude hit this coast that Hwy 101 might be wiped out in places. We kept the TV on all night and peeked every so often to see if there was new news.
.
.
At 5AM, the ranger came around and told us that the lodge was open if we were feeling uneasy. The lodge is at least 50' higher. We were still comfortable where we were and we had a great view of the surf. We took pictures whenever we saw a very high or very low tide but really it was a yawner in our area. We heard a report that the tide was .7 of a foot higher than normal but in the winter we will often see that due to barometric pressure changes.
.
.
The tsunami alarms started going off around 6:30AM (adding to the continuing whoosh-roar-moan). We understand that in Seaside and Tillamook, some alarms didn't work, some of the reverse 911 calls didn't go through, and when people got to the evacuation sites, nobody was in charge.
The campers at the campgrounds we had stayed at last week in Seaside, Oregon and Ocean City, Washington had both been evacuated. (I was so glad to be in our warm RV here.) Compared to Japan, not much damage was felt on the coast. Big surges into the harbors; broken docks. Brookings and Crescent City, CA (now called Tsunami City). And a few people took on the tsunami and got too close to the surf. One drowned.
.
.
Some of the more exciting shots in Oregon are at this webpage:
.
After watching the 30' tall tsunami eating up the countryside in Japan at 35+ mph, you might wonder if a visit to the coastline is ever a smart action. It was 30 minutes from earthquake to total devastation of the Japanese coastline towns. Would we be aware enough to head for the hills if we ever felt an earthquake on the coast? We really, really should be!
After watching the 30' tall tsunami eating up the countryside in Japan at 35+ mph, you might wonder if a visit to the coastline is ever a smart action. It was 30 minutes from earthquake to total devastation of the Japanese coastline towns. Would we be aware enough to head for the hills if we ever felt an earthquake on the coast? We really, really should be!
.
Found more interesting info on this adjustment in the earth in Japan and on subduction zone earthquakes:
Japan has moved west 8'. The earth has flattened a bit. The axis has shifted 10cm. The earth's rotation has sped up 1.8 microseconds per day. (Maybe we won't need a leap day if this keeps up.) I imagine there are more statistics (location and elevation) that are able to be derived from GPS readings and comparing them to before .
.
In the Honshu area of Japan on 3/9 there were 26 quakes (All over 4 magnitude; 3 over 6 magnitude) 10 on the 3/10. All of these would have been felt. Imagine the stress caused by these frequent quakes. The Shinmoedake volcano in Japan which has been erupting this year shut down for a few weeks before the quake and has started erupting again. Might that have been an indicator?
.
This is a tremendous website to track current earthquakes.
.
Now when might our US west coast shores expect debris from Japan? Researching that I found out about a great floating debris field in the Pacific the size is twice the size of Texas. Amazing! This is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
 |
| Tsunami damage? Not this time. |
