Stories tagged tsunami
This article in Science News suggests that seven immense chunks of coral found more than 100 yards from the beach on a Tongan Island could be the world’s largest tsunami debris. Each of the chunks of coral weigh more than 46 metric tons each with the largest being three stories tall and 1,200 metric tons.
Check out a slide show of the coral chunks here.
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Coronal Mass Ejection: View of solar event taken in ultraviolet light by the SOHO spacecraft.
Courtesy NASACheck out the first footage of a gigantic “tsunami” captured plowing through our Sun’s atmosphere. The event was triggered by some sort of explosion on the Sun such as a solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME). The outward-spreading wave spanned the nearly one million kilometers (600,000 miles) of the solar disk in just half an hour. But it’s the amount of energy released that is truly mind-boggling. According to one of the researchers, these explosions release “about two billion times the annual world energy consumption in just a fraction of a second.”
More Yellowstone chaos: One hot tsunami to go, please
That's no hydrothermal explosion: The water blasting from Castle Geyser at Yellowstone National Park is a pop-gun shot compared to the mile-high hydrothermal explosion that rocked the park some 14,000 years ago.
Courtesy WikipediaIt seems like every few weeks I run into more evidence that Yellowstone has, or will again be, the most violent place on Earth.
Scientists this past weekend at a seminar at our national park jewel heard that some 13,000 years ago, an earthquake created the largest-ever hydrothermal explosion, firing off tsunami-size waves that rumbled out from Lake Yellowstone for miles. Debris from the impact could be found as far as 18 miles away and the steam column from the blast may have risen up has high as a mile.
The result of that explosion was the Mary Bay crater, which stretches across the north end of the lake. The massive water eruption may have released as much as 77 million cubic feet of water. Such explosions happen when hot water below the lake’s bottom suddenly flashes into steam and bursts upwards.
Since that time, researchers also figure there have been around 20 smaller hydrothermal explosions around Yellowstone, leaving behind craters larger than a football field. Even smaller explosions happen on a much more frequent basis, but rarely when people are around or causing significant damage. One such blast in 1989 sent rock and debris 200 feet into the air.
And while bloggers and cable TV stations like to make a big deal about Yellowstone being a super volcano ready to blow again, researchers say it’s much more likely that another hydrothermal explosion will alter the park’s landscape first.
What do you think about all of this? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.
Noah's Ark: by Edward Hicks
Mega-tsunami
What happens when a giant meteor lands in the ocean? Not only would there be a big splash, but heat and energy equal to a multi-megaton bomb would melt rock, generate steam and wind, and create a mega-tsunami. The mega-tsunami would be at least 600 feet high. Such a wave would carry ocean sediments several miles inland creating formations called chevrons.
Google maps reveal new craters
Using google-maps scientists are finding many such chevrons. Two chevrons found over four miles inland near Carpentaria in north central Australia both pointed north into the ocean. Using surface altimetry data from satellites, two craters were found on the ocean bottom that contained melted rocks and magnetic spheres with fractures and textures characteristic of a cosmic impact.
“We found diatoms fused to tektites,” a glassy substance formed by meteors. The molten glass and shattered rocks could not be produced by anything other than an impact."
New evidence indicates meteor strike around time of Noah
Last August scientists collected samples from four huge chevrons in Madegascar.
Last month, Dee Breger, director of microscopy at Drexel University in Philadelphia, looked at the samples under a scanning electron microscope and found benthic foraminifera, tiny fossils from the ocean floor, sprinkled throughout. Her close-ups revealed splashes of iron, nickel and chrome fused to the fossils.
About 900 miles southeast from the Madagascar chevrons, in deep ocean, is Burckle crater, which Dr. Abbott discovered last year. Although its sediments have not been directly sampled, cores from the area contain high levels of nickel and magnetic components associated with impact ejecta.
Burckle crater has not been dated, but Dr. Abbott estimates that it is 4,500 to 5,000 years old.
Mythology dates flood to Solar eclipse in 2807 B.C.
An environmental archaeologist, Dr. Masse, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico analyzed 175 flood myths from around the world, and tried to relate them to known and accurately dated natural events like solar eclipses and volcanic eruptions. Fourteen flood myths specifically mention a full solar eclipse, which could have been the one that occurred in May 2807 B.C.
Half the myths talk of a torrential downpour. A third talks of a tsunami. Worldwide they describe hurricane force winds and darkness during the storm. All of these could come from a metior strike and mega-tsunami.
Source article from New York Times.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean about 220 miles from Jakarta, Indonesia. It caused tsunamis which are most likely responsible for the death of at least 100 people and the injury of another 150 people. The earthquake was followed by strong aftershocks.
Tsunami warnings have been issued for Fiji and New Zealand after a earthquake of 7.8 magnitude shook the Pacific Ocean.
The quake's epicenter was about 153 miles off the coast of Tonga.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the alert for Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Fiji, and Wallis-Futuna.
If a tsunami does occur, it could start to affect the islands by as early as 12:15pm (Minnesota time).
We'll post updates...
Or there will be, next year. Japanese researchers plan to drill a hole more than four miles through the Earth's rocky crust to reach the molten mantle below. This will be quite a feat — the deepest hole to date is less than a mile-and-a-half. And, just to make things interesting, they're going to do it from a boat floating a mile and a half above the sea floor. (That's where the Earth's crust is the thinnest.)
The project has several goals. They hope to learn more about undersea earthquakes, like the one that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami. They will also study the rocks and mud for records of climate change. And they will look for microbes and other signs of life in this extreme environment.
"The Indian Ocean tsunami that hit southern Asia on December 26 has uncovered a series of temples in southern India.
"Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town.
"Three rocky structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram, which was battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
"Mahabalipuram is already well known for its ancient, intricately carved shore temples that have been declared a World Heritage site and are visited each year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists. According to descriptions by early British travel writers, the area was also home to seven pagodas, six of which were submerged by the sea."
As posted on the U.S. Geological Survey web site:
A great earthquake occurred at 00:58:49 (UTC) on Sunday, December 26, 2004.
The magnitude 9.0 event has been located OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA.
(This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)
Official USGS earthquake report
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