Sumatra Island tsunami

[snopes]

SECONDS B4 TSUNAMI ...................the last picture!!

PLEASE HOLD YOUR BREATH BEFORE YOU SEE THE PIC BELOW:

The last picture!

This picture was taken on the banks of Sumatra Island (the height of
the wave was of approx. 32 m=105 ft ).

It was found saved in a digital camera, one and a half months after the
disaster.

We cannot know for sure, but very likely the one who took the picture
is not alive any more (it was just a matter of seconds).

What you see is probably the last image he/ she saw before the end!

[snopes]

I'm pretty sure I saw this same picture circulated a few years ago as a photo of a dust storm in Kansas or some such place.

- snopes

[SatansHobbit]

What snopes said, it's a dust storm, not a tsunami.

The same pic is on this page described as an Australian dust storm, but I'd have my doubts it was taken "Down under." I've never heard of us getting storms like that.

[Cervus]

Wow, Sumatra looks a lot like the American midwest...

[TrekkerScout]

This link also claims it is an Australian dust storm, and the photo includes a time stamp of 12.11.2002. However, with the houses having Spanish style roof tiles, it looks more like central California.

[Salamander]

I guarantee that looks very much like suburban Australia (note, I'm not saying that it is, only that it could be).

The eastern states of Australia certainly have had dust storms. Not frequently but I remember at least two that were large enough to have made the national news.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Cervus

Wow, Sumatra looks a lot like the American midwest...

Yeah. I also thought the houses looked a little too "Brady Bunch" for that part of the world. And that the advancing "wave" looked a little too cloudlike. If it were real, I would want that camera!!!!

Originally Posted by SatansHobbit

The same pic is on this page described as an Australian dust storm, but I'd have my doubts it was taken "Down under." I've never heard of us getting storms like that.

It's obviously not "Down Under," the picture is right-side-up!

Some camera if it can survive a "wave" like that. Really cool picture though. It does look like a dust storm or something similar.

[Troberg]

A tsunami is not a big wave front like that, they have an excessively long wavelength, usually 15-30 minutes. I've seen videos of the big tsunami disaster a few years back, and the water was rising at something like one meter per minute. That may not sound like much, but when you consider that this water rise went kilometers inland, you realize that it's a hell of a lot of water to move and there is some serious swoosh in it.

Huge wavefronts that look like this dust storm can occur, but under other circumstances. It usually occurs due to a volcano eruption or mud slide that sends an entire side of a mountain down into the ocean in one big splash. I saw a documentary on this, and there have been recorded such waves in Alaska with a height in excess of 200 m. Too bad surfing is not a big sport in Alaska.

In the same documentary, they said that scientists fear that Tenerife my one day blow and send out a wave 150-300 m high towards Portugal, Spain, England, France and North Africa. I suggest people who live there take swimming lessons, because it's not the right time to learn as you go when that mountain of water comes crashing in... As I Swedish citizen, I can just say "Thank god for Norway!", as they'll protect us from the worst of any such incoming wave.

There are many other sites where such a huge wave might happen, including Iceland, the Mediterranian, and the Pacific ocean.

I don't know for sure, but I expect that these huge waves don't have much range in that state, and soon flattens out and becomes a normal tsunami as they travel. I have a really hard time seeing how such a pile of water could survive gravity, air resistance and energy loss when travelling at high speed.

[Mosherette]

Originally Posted by Troberg

In the same documentary, they said that scientists fear that Tenerife my one day blow and send out a wave 150-300 m high towards Portugal, Spain, England, France and North Africa.

La Palma, another of the Canary Isalnds, is said to be about to do the same thing, only it "threatens" the eastern coast of the USA. I doubt a tsunami would be able to sustain enough force to threaten a continent that far away, however: it's a much greater distnace than the Boxing Day tsunami travelled, and in a much wider basin.

The tsunami generated by the 1964 Alaskan earthquake did reach Hawaii, but no one was killed by it and it "only" caused $67,000 worth of damage (as opposed to 107 fatalities and over $84 million worth of damage in Alaska). Cite.

Actually, I can't find much when searching about possible tsunamis generated by a Tenerife event. Have you confused Tenerife with La Palma? - a La Palma originating tsunami could threaten north-western European coasts. There was big scaremongering BBC2 documentary about it a few years ago.

[Gibbie]

I know we discussed this on the old board but I'm not coming up with anything when I search. Certainly it wasn't described a the tsunami then.

Gibbie

ETA: I think is the thread but the photo doesn't work anymore. It matches what I'm remembering though.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Originally Posted by Gibbie

I know we discussed this on the old board but I'm not coming up with anything when I search. Certainly it wasn't described a the tsunami then.

Gibbie

ETA: I think is the thread but the photo doesn't work anymore. It matches what I'm remembering though.

That's the one I thought of too, Gibbie.

[Troberg]

Actually, I can't find much when searching about possible tsunamis generated by a Tenerife event. Have you confused Tenerife with La Palma?

Yep. Sorry. I havn't been there since I was a small child, so I'll use that as an excuse.

La Palma, another of the Canary Isalnds, is said to be about to do the same thing, only it "threatens" the eastern coast of the USA. I doubt a tsunami would be able to sustain enough force to threaten a continent that far away, however: it's a much greater distnace than the Boxing Day tsunami travelled, and in a much wider basin.

I've heard, probably in the same documentary, that it's no uncommon for tsunamis to bounce back and forth across the pacific ocean several times. Of course they lose momentum, but it's not exactly like Florida can rival Himalaya for tsunami safety either. Relatively little water can reach pretty far inland.

I've seen the same photo as a dust storm in KS, TX, Saskatchewan, Canada, Manitoba, Canada, and believe it or not, Suadi Arabia.
I'd a thunk if it was supposed to be the Solomon Islands, someone could at least photoshop in a few tropical trees and plants, and maybe put in a Japanese or Australian vehicle, which would be right hand drive, not left hand drive as they drive in the Solomons.

You'd think that they could have removed the timestamp a little more convincingly.