Incredible Tsunami Picture!
By Thomas73
@Thomas73 (1467)
Switzerland
February 6, 2007 8:11am CST
This is the picture of a massive wall of water about to engulf many people. You can easily seen them run from it. A tsunami is a series of waves created when a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced on a massive scale. Earthquakes, mass movements above of below water, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions, landslides and large meteorite impacts all have the potential to generate a tsunami. I am borrowing all this from wikipedia, as I am not so familiar with this kind of phenomenon. The effects of a tsunami can range from unnoticeable to devastating. The term tsunami comes from the Japanese. I wonder how many people will actually read all of this. Although the term is used in Japanese for both plural and singular, in English tsunamis is often used as the plural. It need to be pointed out that the picture is actually a fake. The term was created by fishermen who returned to port to find the area surrounding their harbour devastated, although they hadn't been aware of any wave in the open water. The picture is in fact one of a tidal bore. Tsunamis are common throughout Japanese history, and many have been recorded. Many people have claimed that this picture was taken during the 26th December 2004 tsunami, but it isn't, it's a fairly harmless tidal bore. A tsunami has a much smaller amplitude offshore and a very long wavelength. This is only an experiment to determine how many people will fall for it, and how many will actually read the text before answering in this particular discussion. Tsunamis have been historically referred to as tidal waves because, as they approach land, they take on the violent characteristics of a violent onrushing tide rather than the sort of cresting waves that are formed by wind action upon the ocean. So now I think I can stop drowning my relevant sentences in the midst of unrelated text. We'll see what the outcome will be.
10 people like this
29 responses
@inked4life (4224)
• United States
6 Feb 07
Man, that is one wild picture...can you imagine how scared those people must be?...very scary
2 people like this
@lauriefnp (5111)
• United States
6 Feb 07
Thomas, I should get a + for reading the whole discussion! Actually, I am fascinated with natural disasters and have read a lot about Tsunamis since the devastating one in 2004- I will clarify this: I am interested in the natural phenomenon, however I find the destruction of life and property to be horrendous and I have a deep compassion for anyone who is affected by one of this disasters. Although I understand your differentiation between a Tsunami and a tidal boar on a technical level, this picture sure makes the tidal boar appear to be very dangerous- it does not look harmless to me at all. I sure as hell would be scared if I saw that coming at me!
@sunshinecup (7871)
•
7 Feb 07
OMG those poor poor people! Looking at that photo gives me so much insight to life! It makes more understanding of the true power of God!
...If I was an ant maybe :-)
Thanks for this, it's been really interesting in reading your responses and keeping count of those that choose not to read. Kind of like speaking without thinking? LOL
1 person likes this
@Eskimo (2315)
•
6 Feb 07
Thomas, amongst other things, I have studied Oceanography, and understand a bit about tsunamis, you are right in the different ways that they can be created, the giant waves are usually (note the scientific term 'usually') caused by a large volume of water moving very fast through the ocean, it is practically un-noticed when the water is deep, but as soon as it approaches shallow water, near beaches, then the water has no where else to go except upwards which is what causes the giant waves going onto land.
One thing which happens with some tsunami's is that the water at the beach suddenly and unexpectedly drains away, this usually attracts people (especially children) to try and follow the water. If you ever see this happen then head for high ground as quick as possible, there may be as much as 10 minutes before the waves strike.
If anyone wants more information then go to the Tsunami website at http://tsunami.gov./
@yanjiaren (9031)
•
6 Feb 07
my mind boggles..so which part of the whole text am i supposed to be responding to with what kind of response?
o.k i learned that the pic is not a tsunami but is a tidal bore..very interesting..
and i learnt that the term tsunami is a japanese term coined by fishermen in japan..
what am i supposed to do next lol?
@khushboo1984 (1257)
• India
6 Feb 07
Hey Thomas that was a very nice article. I live in a city situated along the cost of Bay of Bengal. During the 26 dec 2004 Tsunami we had also felt the quake in our city. It was very high in my area as I live near the beach. We even saw the water going back all of a sudden and then after a few minutes it just came forward with great force. That was one experince in my life which I will never forget. It was quite scary although there was no loss of property or people in my city
1 person likes this
@volschenkh (1043)
• South Africa
6 Feb 07
Even its a fake picture, and not really one of a tsunami but a tidal bore, its still impressively scary. I certanly would not want to be in such a position!
I had ons such experience when I was a university student a few years ago. Me and a group of friends went away to small beach resort on the south-east coast of South Africa. We were walking along the beach on the dry sand, with our cameras and a small dog, close to a natural dune of about 10 m high. The next moment a mass of water were coming our way, and we ran up the dune, grabbing the dog by its hind legs. We were too late, and the water slammed into us and pushed us over the top of the dune. The wave quickly retreated, and the only evidence of what has just happened was the foam residue on the dune sand and the wet and ruined cameras. The dog was luckily saved, if we didn't grab her she would have problably been pulled into the sea and drowned.
@OROKAM55 (121)
• United States
6 Feb 07
Though fascinating as it was, the picture posted is a fake tsunami picture among 100s of other picutres posted on the internet. Check www. tsunamis.com/tsunami-pictures.html to view other fake pics of tsunamis. However, the story is heart-breaking in any case
1 person likes this
@Alphasee (389)
• United States
7 Feb 07
At first I thought this was just some stupid wikipedia copy + paste, but I'm glad it's not. You got a + for it, because it will show us the people that don't actually care about the post content and just say stuff like "zomg, that is so amazing!!". Thanks for this one.
I love the fake photos people make. The worst one I've seen was the one where there's a twin-towers sand castle, and they have a bunch of middle-eastern individuals behind it. I thought that was kinda stupid.
This is cool though. The people don't seem to be running the right direction, and the wave looks too "solid" to actually be like that. I've seen flooding before, and it doesn't really look like that.
Once again, thanks for this.
@flagbabygirl (891)
• United States
6 Feb 07
I should also get a + I read this amazing lesson plan and found it very interesting. Thank you for expanding the site to include information rather than just ramblins of peoples own crazy lives, I love that too don't get me wrong but it is nice to learn something every once in a while as well! KUDOS!
1 person likes this
@HawaiiGopher (1009)
• Belgium
6 Feb 07
I see you have a massive clump of thoughts here and there. So yes, I did actually bother reading it. It wasn't pointless posting this after all? ;) Well, interesting read but that could have easily been said in a few sentences. "Below is a picture of what people claim is a tsunami. However, I've come to learn that this is actually a tidal bore." But nonetheless.. well, I was going to say I learned something but I'm sorry, I didn't. It's the first time I've seen that picture. Thanks for posting it! :)
1 person likes this
@josephperera (2906)
• Sri Lanka
8 Feb 07
After the Tsunami in 2004, many photographs appeared in the newspapers and they were hunting for photos and were unable to tell which is genuine and which is fake. More fake pictures are there at www.truthorfiction.com . I am from Sri Lanka and me and my friend drove like idiots to the Wellawatta (10km for Colombo) beach to take photographs. When the wave came just enough to submerge the tyres of the vehicles people started running and the small lanes were packed. But luckily that was the maximum height of the Tsunami. It did the real damage towards the northern part of the country.
@Piratesware (2888)
• Indonesia
7 Feb 07
well tsunami hass been destroy 1/3 of my country in Indonesia.
@Piratesware (2888)
• Indonesia
7 Feb 07
well tsunami hass been destroy 1/3 of my country in Indonesia.
@maru_047in (1007)
• India
7 Feb 07
Thomas The natural disaster is very frequent nowadays because of the reason of the overpopulation and the pollution they have caused that is by the deforestation and new inventions that have caused the humans lazy and if you look at japan it ll occur three times in a year they are all ready to take that by preventing if you know the yellow river in china or so it is the debasting river as far as i have known so i think the only thing that can avoid this is by proper prevention method and by the proper communication that they have to find out the instrument that ll warn the earthquake so that they can have a prevention i m getting in to deep so their is lot to learn from this as far as i am concerned so let us see what ll be the future.
@raizer2gabone (29)
• Romania
7 Feb 07
yes tsunami is very dengeros but it's the natue.you can potriv he
