Tonga eruption....

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In Tonga, there is no high ground to evacuate to. Also an extremely poor island nation, so no resources to cope with any natural disaster. Looks like their Tsunami was 12 or so hours ago, so should have settled by now. When the sun comes up in a few more hours, we will find out how badly damaged they are. So far no reports of damage to the folks living there, only their meagre property. Hoping they can recover from this quickly.
 
My wife woke me up this morning saying “This isn’t a joke, there is a Tsunami approaching Washington.”

Turns out, that it likely will not be big enough to make it into the central Puget Sound region. However, if my boat was in a marina on the WA coast, San Juans, or Port Townsend, I’d be at the marina babysitting it.
 
DSC went off this morning from Victoria CG with the advisory. We’re on anchor in Echo Bay on Sucia Island expecting a 1-3’ swell and strong current before 10:00. So far it’s been dead calm.
 
Apparently it was the Hunga Tonga volcano. The sonic boom was heard up to 470 miles away. That's going to be a mess....
 
dhays said:
My wife woke me up this morning saying “This isn’t a joke, there is a Tsunami approaching Washington.”

Turns out, that it likely will not be big enough to make it into the central Puget Sound region. However, if my boat was in a marina on the WA coast, San Juans, or Port Townsend, I’d be at the marina babysitting it.
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We got the "advisory" here in the BC Gulf Islands. Advisory is the fourth level (diminishing) where we should expect little or no visible wave action. No timing is provided, as that will depend on how many miles of channels or other diversions the wave needs to navigate before getting to your specific location.
The outer coast areas, and places that get a concentration, like Port Alberni, get a higher level notification. Tofino was supposed to get their wave, of ~80 cm, by now. Nothing yet on the news reports to confirm that.
 
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dhays said:
My wife woke me up this morning saying “This isn’t a joke, there is a Tsunami approaching Washington.”

Turns out, that it likely will not be big enough to make it into the central Puget Sound region. However, if my boat was in a marina on the WA coast, San Juans, or Port Townsend, I’d be at the marina babysitting it.
Click to expand...

Wifey B: And I'd not dare head toward the risk, but away. Tsunami's are frightening creatures of nature and I'm not about to tangle with one. Like the worst of Tornado and Hurricane all rolled up into one. :nonono::nonono::nonono:
 
Some damage here in New Zealand. Tutukaka harbour's shape means it often gets the most noticeable affects of even small Tsunamis. This time it went over the breakwater. 4T7K2LISC5LIYZQDZOXIZHTOAQ.jpg
 
i'm at my cabin in ocean shores on the washington coast. been hearing about the situation since i woke this morning. the news has been saying stay away from the coast, so of course, the place is crawling with out of towners. the cops have the beach access roads blocked off though, no way to get out there and have a look. i think it's pretty much over by now, haven't heard of any damage at all.
the satellite video of the event was pretty cool, that pressure wave was amazing.
 
More from Tutukaka. We have Cyclone Cody close by as well so the tsunami added to the storm surge it seemsKVTWTDHXWT2DRSIPLITMQLNWNM.jpg2MQNNCKRSJFFT55R2SV2HYL7QA.jpgINDDZQ6BIKANJIALOHSXFWDHA4.jpg
 
Geography dictates that if anyone, most anywhere, is having a tsunami, Crescent City, CA is going to share in the event. The Good Friday earthquake in Alaska's Prince William Sound generated 15 meter waves which leveled 29 blocks of Crescent City and killed 11 residents.


The 2011 Tōhoku-oki Earthquake (Fukushima, Japan) destroyed the small boat harbor to the tune of $30million.


This morning my niece and her husband were camping near the beach when they heard the warning. As they were packing the car, they noticed all the water draining out of the harbor. Returning waves flooded the parking lot at the harbor, but no reported damage.
 
If you see the bay emptying...RUN TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY
 
I've been to Tonga twice, and there is high ground on many of the islands. There are a lot of coral atolls and low lying islands, though they are less populated. Our hopes are that no one was injured by the tsunami. The Tongan people are VERY nice!
 
Alaskan Sea-Duction said:
If you see the bay emptying...RUN TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY
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Amen! I'm actually surprised how many boaters do not know that. Read a story years ago by a cruiser that was in Samoa I believe when the tsunami swept through. They were almost killed because they saw the water drain out of the bay, then stood there at the quay wondering what was going when the tidal wave came rushing in...
 
The other real worry here is that this may not be over, as volcanos, once erupting, tend to continue for a while. Just think of La Palma recently. This thing could possibly go on shoving out modest tsunamis for days or weeks..?

Fortunately, the behaviour for under-water ones is the first eruption breaking through the crust is explosive, after that lava tends to keep flowing but cools quite quickly, and sometimes a new island forms over time. Let's hope for the poor Tongans that is what happens here.
 
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AlaskaProf said:
The one about pumice on the beach...or the one about Djokovic?:dance:
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There was only one related item when I read the article, it related to tsunami not Jokovic. Maybe something got added.

Watched the Federal Court adjourn about 15 minutes ago to consider their decision likely to be handed down today. Possibly cause for concern, hopefully short of a tsunami.
 
AlaskaProf said:
The one about pumice on the beach...or the one about Djokovic?

Actually, that is well-written with lot of info.
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We had a summer place (1994-2004)in Seldovia, Alaska, an isolated boardwalk town of 300 or so which was spared direct damage in the 1964 quake, except that the substrate was dropped about 8 feet and every subsequent high tide filled every home with seawater.
 
My only experience with underwater volcanoes is “kick ‘‘em Jenny “. Although nothing in the magnitude of what’s discussed here even in th absence of violent eruption it remains threat to navigation. Apparently it releases enough material and gas that the density of the water above it falls. Sometimes to the extent boats above it will just sink. Charts and notice to navigators show a varying diameter exclusion zone around it which we have respected. Sometimes passing by the water looks different.
Wonder if the same thing occurs with Pacific Ocean underwater volcanoes? Is there now an exclusion zone round theTonga volcano and is it permanent but of varying size like with kick ‘‘em Jenny?
 
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The volcano in this Tongan eruption is above water (small island). There is another further north that is sometimes above, and sometimes below the LW mark. We sailed through a large pumice field from a small eruption of that one on the way to Fiji in the 90s.
We sailed close to "kick em Jenny" and read with interest the reasons for the exclusion zone. Our underwater volcanoes around NZ are much deeper and I guess the bubbles dissipate. I am not aware of such warnings, just marked "volcanic activity" or some such.
We are quite familiar with volcanoes down here, I can see the small plume from White Island as I write this. But this latest eruption in Tonga is very big.
 
Friends in various spots in Alaska heard the booms of the eruption, including from deep in the Interior, which is amazing really, since when Alaskan volcanoes erupt any effects are seldom noticed in and north of the Alaska Range.
 
darkside said:
The volcano in this Tongan eruption is above water (small island). There is another further north that is sometimes above, and sometimes below the LW mark. We sailed through a large pumice field from a small eruption of that one on the way to Fiji in the 90s.
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We also sailed by the above mentioned underwater volcano in 1993 between the Vava'u Group and Fiji. The pumice made a strange crackling sound as we ghosted along at about 3 kts. The boating world is really a small one


Hollywood
 
AlaskaProf said:
We had a summer place (1994-2004)in Seldovia, Alaska, an isolated boardwalk town of 300 or so which was spared direct damage in the 1964 quake, except that the substrate was dropped about 8 feet and every subsequent high tide filled every home with seawater.
Click to expand...

I have had people call me a liar over this but its absolutely true. Was living on a houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle when the Ak quake hit and we were first on the long dock that just was built on piling.
The lake level actually rose and fell just a bit, not much, and also our dock started to "snake" back and forth, all the houseboats were moving around etc.
Long ways from Anchorage but it did have an impact.
Strange stuff...
 
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