TSUNAMI

[Alessandro Calello]

Hello people,

I found maybe an opportunity to go for four months to Thailand to do my DM training course.

The thing is that the place is exactly where the tsunami of 2004 hit, and of course I'm s**tting my pants just at the idea to be witness of a Tsunami.

Should I be scared?

 

[Stoo]

No.

Anything else?

But seriously, the odds of a similar event happening in the same place can't be more than 80/20... just sleep in your dive gear to be safe, and don't rent a basement apartment.

 

[BoltSnap]

Italy had very deadly tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes in the past, you should be horribly terrified where you are now for sure.

 

[Alessandro Calello]

the Tsunami of 2004 made more than 230'000 dead... and I received this offer from one of the worst place hit by the tsunami... I think it's normal to be scared... the tsunami of that year was exceptionally big but still there could be a chance of a smaller one? and if yes there are there way to prevent that the same outcome may happen?

 

[Stoo]

I think that your fear is not entirely unjustified... in that whatever tectonic plates that shifted and caused that wave are still there, but presumably they no longer have that pent up energy to release. It may be that of all of the areas that could potentially end up in the path of a Tsunami, this area is one of the most safe.

I would imagine that there are much better warnings there now as well. And, if I recall correctly, boats and divers that were offshore, barely noticed the wave as it passed...

This kind of reminds me of the thread about not travelling to the Red Sea to dive because the terrorists will get you. Of course it's possible, but the much greater risk is dying in a car accident on the way to the airport. Or being shot by a toddler the next time you're in the US!

 

[Dan]

You just worry too much. Statistically Thailand is not listed as the most common tsunami area.

When you Google most common tsunami areas, you get this:
Most tsunamis, about 80 percent, happen within the Pacific Ocean's “Ring of Fire,” a geologically active area where tectonic shifts make volcanoes and earthquakes common. Tsunamis may also be caused by underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions.

Scientists estimate that almost three quarter of the world tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, where the megathrusts (subduction zones) are so common (Aleutian Islands, Alaska, Chile, Philippines, Japan etc).

The word Tsunami is from Japanese, not Thai.

The center of the 2004 tsunami was in Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia, where I'm from. I still have family live in Medan, a hundred miles from Aceh. They are not worry either.

 

[BoltSnap]

Just come down to Libya and have a great time here. No Tsunamis at all, just fireworks here and there.

The only thing I'd worry about going there is how clean and safe that area is now after their Tsunami.

 

[Dan]

I was in Phuket 2 years ago. It's all good.

 

[Wingy]

No there is no way of foretelling the potential for a tsunami other than a quake being recorded as tsunamgenic (having all conditions to create a tsunami) and if a tsunami is created where it will make landfall and how big the wave(s) will be is not within the realms of scientific powers at this stage until we can accurately predict quakes. Nor will it ever be for one simple reason - even if we could pinpoint to the hour and within the km/mile a quake is going to hit to generate a tsunami governments etc would never tell people because alerting and evacuation of hundreds of thousands to millions of people is not possible anywhere in the world. The fault that caused the Boxing Day Tsunami did indeed hit Aceh first - the faultline is on the north of Sumatra and highly active. I was there a few years ago and had an 8.6 and an 8.2 quake 414km from the epicentre and no tsunami was spawned. Not all quakes create tsunamis.

If Geomorphologists were at the stage where they could say yes, there is going to be a tsunami in say Sumatra next month the information would likely be held in Govt files and not given to the people because where do you evacuate 50.7 million people and how and where do you relocate them to and who is going to supply food and water to an additional 50.7million mouths who may be your guests for a few years while the island of Sumatra is cleared of all the damage, rebuilt with infrastructure etc. You dont, its not possible.

The Tsunami buoy system in place will give those on the coast line a bit of notice, modelling for wave intensity and direction will be broadcast but when you are in a region of millions of people even if you got 6 hours warning its very likely you would encounter blocked roads due to everyone else trying to escape.

So what you do is enjoy life instead as opposed to worrying about a natural phenomena you have no control over.

 

[SCRedWolf]

Hello people,

I found maybe an opportunity to go for four months to Thailand to do my DM training course.

The thing is that the place is exactly where the tsunami of 2004 hit, and of course I'm s**tting my pants just at the idea to be witness of a Tsunami.

Should I be scared?

No more than usual. That said it's not paranoid to think tactically whenever visiting a new place. What are the potential dangers and how do I mitigate them? Tsunami. Okay so where are the escape routes to high ground? That sort of thing. Just like diving we try to prepare ahead of time for emergencies so we can react with minimal time thinking to screw us up. Good luck and have a great time.