A Shocking Ground-Level View of the Tsunami

[pokerfan]

Adrian Chen — As terrifying as they are, most videos from Japan's tsunami released so far were taken at the relatively reassuring level of a hovering helicopter or high-rise-mounted security camera. Here's video taken from a Sendai Airport terminal as the tsunami approaches and washes away cars in the parking lot directly below. It gives you a sense of just how quickly it moved.

9,636 views, Mar 12, 2011 12:01 PM

http://gawker.com/#!5781320/a-shocking-ground+level-view-of-the-tsunami

[MineralMan]

1. Wow! Frightening.

[Pharaoh]

2. Wowza!!

[Lorien]

3. I'm just glad that the airport remained standing

those rushing waters were able to take down some pretty large structures.

[drm604]

4. Holy Crap!

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. but Tsunami occurred sometime after the main earthquake right? hours later?

[malaise]

7. 30 minutes after the quake n/t

[nickyt]

8. I kept hearing yesterday it was more like 15 minutes, but of course, have no proof -

[pokerfan]

10. I think it depends upon how far the tsunami must travel

[pokerfan]

9. about an hour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake_and_tsunami

The 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami (東北地方太平洋沖地震, Tōhoku Chihō Taiheiyō-oki Jishin, literally "Tōhoku region Pacific Ocean offshore earthquake") was an 8.9 to 9.1-MW megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 05:46 UTC (14:46 local time) on 11 March 2011.

The tsunami warning issued by Japan was the most serious on its warning scale, implying that the wave was expected to be at least 10 meters (33 ft) high. A wave that high was observed at 3:55 pm JST flooding Sendai Airport, which is located near the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, with waves sweeping aside cars and flooding various buildings as they traveled inland.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. thanks

[jannyk]

13. Wave traveling @ 500 miles an hour. 80 miles from Sendai. You do the math.

The warning network alerts people living in the area that will possibly be hit by a tsunami."Unfortunately, the closer you get to the earthquake, the less time you have. Clearly in the case of the country of Japan, they would not have had much warning at all," Sverdrup said.

With the westbound wave traveling at about 500 mph (804.7 kilometres per hour), roughly the speed of a commercial flight, Hawaii and the west coast of North America were better off.

In Japan, the tsunami warning went out about five minutes after the earthquake and included an estimated height for the waves, Yeh said. Reports of the time between the warning and the arrival of the giant waves varied, and as of Friday (March 11) afternoon, the death toll was still uncertain, with hundreds reported missing.

Yeh said the island nation was as well-prepared as it could have been for the disaster.

....(epicenter) 80 miles (130 km) east of Sendai, Honshu in the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.livescience.com/13187-japan-earthquake-tsunami-science-faq.html

[Ian David]

6. "The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers... oh, never mind..." n/t

[rasputin1952]

11. When things like this happen, shock sets in...

there is also an element of shear awe. Quite a few get caught on beaches because, as the water is drawn away from the shore just before the wave strikes, it is a spectacular site and people just become frozen on the spot. The Indonesian quake had had film of a bay, just before the initial wave struck, a young boy on the beach...it was terrible to watch because I knew in just a few seconds, that child would be struck by an unyielding wall of water...I got caught up in the "awe" of the situation, even though I knew the tragedy that was about to happen...:(

The force this tore through with is amazing, lifting cars, trucks, buses, buildings and just about everything else without even so much as slowing down.