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[oilinki]

scotlandontour, on 2009-09-30 18:59:47, said:

<br />Does anyone have any advice?<br /><br />I am currently a tourist on holiday in Karon Beach.<br /><br />Our hotel staff laughed at us when we asked them for advice and said that the Tsunami was in Samoa and not here.<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

At least you can tell them that this is another earth quake and another tsunami warning.

[webfact]

1 double post deleted

[Matan]

bangkokrick, on 2009-09-30 12:11:51, said:

scotlandontour, on 2009-09-30 18:59:47, said:

Does anyone have any advice?

I am currently a tourist on holiday in Karon Beach.

Our hotel staff laughed at us when we asked them for advice and said that the Tsunami was in Samoa and not here.

I would keep glued to the news mate. BBC have just this minute said that the warning was cancelled, so should be OK i guess. When do Thais ever watch the world news, so how would they know anyway?

Cheers, Rick

There have been two earthquakes, the Samoa one is much bigger though. Much further away also!

[Stocky]

Phuket's safe, trust me I'm a geologist.

[mahtin]

george, on 2009-09-30 13:53:20, said:

Update:
" However, we are now waiting for the information from Indonesia, whether it would issue The tsunami warning or. If it does, we will follow suit,'' he said.

Is this official?

Thailand cannot make a decision without Indonesia showing the way first?

How much face has this person just lost Thailand?

[goatfarmer]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

Presumably the shock would pass through 500km of land on west sumatra and create a wave in the straits of melaka on the east. But the point is well taken that a wave generated 50km off Padang, the most likely point at which a tsunami would occur, is not going to pass over Sumatra to threaten Thailand.

[Frankythai]

d0om4gloom, on 2009-09-30 19:14:12, said:

scotlandontour, on 2009-09-30 18:59:47, said:

Does anyone have any advice?

I am currently a tourist on holiday in Karon Beach.

Our hotel staff laughed at us when we asked them for advice and said that the Tsunami was in Samoa and not here.

run like the wind or put your head in the sand, take your pick. What a stupid question !

SORRY THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS, THERE ARE ONLY STUPID ANSWERS, and this answer is stupid.
People are just asking for advice, if you can't give than don't but don't call them stupid, because you do not know the answer

[george]

Pacific quake alert system works well

Pacific tsunami monitors issued an immediate alert after the major quake that struck off Samoa on Tuesday, but the islands' closeness to the epicentre may have boosted the death toll, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"The alert system worked well. The tsunami alert centre in Honolulu (Hawaii) immediately issued a warning to the various countries in the network,'' said Badaoui Rouhban, director of the section for disaster reduction at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.

"After a warning is received, it is up to local authorities to respond to it,'' he told AFP.

"According to the locality, the alert is then issued by radio, by television, sometimes by ringing church bells or other means... we do not yet have a report as to the response.''

Rouhban said even though the tsunami alert was issued from Hawaii "within minutes,'' the 8.0-magnitude sub-sea quake occurred only about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Samoan coastline.

"The speed at which a tsunami moves can be considerable, it can be equivalent to the speed of a plane, at 800 kilometres (500 miles) per hour ... at such speeds, it would have taken only about 20 minutes to reach the coast.''

Rouhban added: "There were victims in Samoa partly because of the close geographical distance or possibly because the local alert system was insufficient, didn't work properly or did not have the time.''

At least 113 people were killed, according to a still-incomplete toll compiled Wednesday from emergency officials in Samoa and Tonga.

UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is overseeing a global warning system for tsunamis, covering the Indian Ocean, Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific.

The 26-nation Pacific system is the oldest regional network, dating back to 1965. Its hub is the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii, operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

-- AFP 2009-09-30

[guava]

arkom, on 2009-09-30 18:57:13, said:

What's the harm in issuing a warning before Indonesia, before they know it it could be too late and same thing will happen in 2004. Amazing Thailand.

What's the harm in prematurely issuing ANY warnings....

Well there's the cost. The inconvenience. The stress. The panic. The potential for traffic accidents, other injuries, looting, civil unrest, etc etc etc. Evacuations don't just happen - people need to make them happen, and there's always a cost - potentially a massive one.

Even more importantly, there's the potential for people to develop apathy - the "boy who cried wolf" scenario. If people are subjected to even a couple of tsunami alerts or even full scale evacuations - and it turns out to be a false alert, how long do you think it would be before a lot of people just chose to ignore them, not relay them to friends and family, not bother waking the kids etc?

[SeanPhuket]

All rightly put on alert, then all rightly alert cancelled.

Good job by all I reckon ...

[Stocky]

goatfarmer, on 2009-09-30 19:36:39, said:

Presumably the shock would pass through 500km of land on west sumatra and create a wave in the straits of melaka on the east.

Errr, no.

[lizardofoz]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

The last Indonesian earthquake was on that side of Sumatra and still swept around the corner. Yes it can happen as it displaces water that has to go somewhere. Last time it made it to Indian Thailand Malaysia ( upper in Langkawi), and even got to Africa.

Its a displacement of water that turns into a big wave when it gets to the shallows near land.

I was on the beach for the last one - where we you??

Whos to say the wave can only be produced in one direction??

[anterian]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

Some physics lessons would help also Someone earlier asked what happens if two tsunami waves meet going in opposite directions. Well on a large scale nothing, they would simply pass through each other unaffected. Find a small pond and toss two pebbles in some distance apart and you will see what I mean. On a local scale it will depend upon the phase relationship between the two waves, if in phase you will get constructive reinforcement, if out of phase then destructive cancellation, as such waves are unlikely to be totally in phase or out of phase, the result will be somewhere inbetween.

[george]

Tsunami Watch canceled

PHUKET: -- The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has canceled today’s tsunami watch following warnings earlier this evening that a tsunami could hit the region.

The warning center’s latest and ‘final’ report issued to government agencies stated that sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated by the magnitude 7.6 earthquake off Sumatra.


-- Phuket Gazette 2009-09-30

[Stocky]

This one is over 800km south of the 2004 epicentre, and in no position to propagate a wave that would affect Phuket.

[korkenzieher]

lizardofoz, on 2009-09-30 20:47:16, said:

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

The last Indonesian earthquake was on that side of Sumatra and still swept around the corner. Yes it can happen as it displaces water that has to go somewhere. Last time it made it to Indian Thailand Malaysia ( upper in Langkawi), and even got to Africa.

Its a displacement of water that turns into a big wave when it gets to the shallows near land.

I was on the beach for the last one - where we you??

Whos to say the wave can only be produced in one direction??

Purely as a generalisation, because what happens is that one side of the sea floor drops with respect to the other, across a fault. Literally a step down. That means the ocean on the upper step is that amount higher up, and water flows down to to the side that has stepped down. That is why India was affected last time, but not Australia. The Tsunami itself happens as the increased water movement slows as it hits the shallows and water backs up, causing the wave to rear up. The reason this doesn't happen with some faults (eg San Andreas) is because they move sideways rather than stepwise. The Pacific circle around southern Indonesia, and Japan is all stepwise faulting due to convergence of tectonic plates.

I also am a Geologist.
RSM, IC Lond.

[jbeck]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

Because of angular spreading and bending and refraction/reflection of ocean waves, that's how. Drop a pebble into some water.

[harrycallahan]

The Red Cross and I expect others are going to be asking for cash for the new tsunami victims. Would it be wrong to direct them to the unspent millions and magical disappearing funds collected after the last one?

[Jingjok]

guava, on 2009-09-30 20:42:48, said:

arkom, on 2009-09-30 18:57:13, said:

What's the harm in issuing a warning before Indonesia, before they know it it could be too late and same thing will happen in 2004. Amazing Thailand.

What's the harm in prematurely issuing ANY warnings....

Well there's the cost. The inconvenience. The stress. The panic. The potential for traffic accidents, other injuries, looting, civil unrest, etc etc etc. Evacuations don't just happen - people need to make them happen, and there's always a cost - potentially a massive one.

Even more importantly, there's the potential for people to develop apathy - the "boy who cried wolf" scenario. If people are subjected to even a couple of tsunami alerts or even full scale evacuations - and it turns out to be a false alert, how long do you think it would be before a lot of people just chose to ignore them, not relay them to friends and family, not bother waking the kids etc?

Spot on Guava, you beat me to it

All credit to the Thai authorities (and I don't say that very often!) for keeping calm and waiting for proper information before panicking and issuing an @rse-covering alert, which is probably what would have happened in the West. ('elf n safety, mate').

The potential for panic and traffic accidents, some probably fatal, would have not been insignificant.

[Felt 35]

Quote

Phuket's safe, trust me

So said also Mr. T

[meelousee]

dudemeister, on 2009-09-30 18:58:39, said:

BillR, on 2009-09-30 18:12:05, said:

9pm arrival time for thailand (if at all)

BBC World News resident expert - said yesterdays tsunami 'could' have been travelling at up to 800kmh.

...but i no good at the maths to find out arrival times Thailand.

Speed Distance Time

Known Speed 100kmph
Known Distance 100kn

Distance / speed = 1 hour
****************************
Known distance 100km
Known time 1 hour

distance x time = speed 100kmph
****************************
Known Speed 100kmph
Known Time 1hour
Speed X time = Distance 100km

[meelousee]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

I guess you did not know that is the same coast line of the last disaster. you need to learn fluid dynamics, lookup terms like refraction, and see how wave dynamics work.

" basic geography lessons. "

[Stocky]

Seismicity and tsunamis off the Sumatran coast are associated with the subduction zone that forms the boundary between the Indian/Australian and Eurasian plates. As the lower oceanic plate is subducting beneath the continental plate the two plates tend to lock and as he lower plate slowly descends it pulls the upper plate down with it. When the stress buildup overcomes the locking friction, the plates suddenly break free from each other and the upper plate slips back. This sudden slip generates an earthquake and a quick upward displacement of the ocean floor can which can cause a tsunami.

The 2004 quake unlocked the fault over a distance of 1500 km; the rupture started beneath the epicenter and progressed northward along the fault at about 2 km/sec. The whole rupture lasted about 10 minutes. The Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale so whilst todays quake at 7.6 looks big it's nowhere near as big as the 2004 quake. Making the comparison in terms of TNT equivalent, today was about 300 megatons, 2004 was 114 gigatons of TNT!

As I've pointed out todays quake whilst off the same coast is over 800km south, go look at at map. I'm well aware of where it is I'm based in Bengkulu just down the coast, whilst I'm in Thailand for todays bump I was in Bengkulu for the 8.5 event in 2007.

Edited by Stocky, 2009-09-30 20:44:51.

[jackr]

goatfarmer, on 2009-09-30 19:36:39, said:

Presumably the shock would pass through 500km of land on west sumatra and create a wave in the straits of melaka on the east.

It doesn't work like that (shockwaves creating tsumanis); it's the upthrust causing water displacement as someone else mentioned. If tsunamis were shockwave-generated they'd be happening all the time and would be on us in minutes rather than hours.

[Sherlocke]

Stocky, on 2009-09-30 19:15:34, said:

There's a need some basic geography lessons.
How does an earthquake 50km off Padang Sumatra propagate a wave that could come anywhere near the coast of Thailand?

tsunamis are often caused by sudden huge displacements of the sea bed...this doe not have to be that near the epicentre - the shock waves from this then move through the water......