Photo: NOAA
The world collectively braced itself for disaster as a tsunami sped through the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday. The fallout of one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Russia, news of the surge called for warnings and alerts spreading all the way to California, with disastrous surges hitting parts of Japan, and more.
In communities across the Pacific Ocean, people fled to higher ground but Hawaii was understandably a focal point. An animation released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows just why all eyes were on Hawaii Tuesday, even as many others were impacted as well.
The short video below illustrates the path the National Weather Service forecasted that tsunami to take, spreading from the quake’s eastern Russian epicenter, with energy that traveled all the way down to Chile. In the video, you can see Hawaii sitting dead center in the tsunami’s path. It was reported at one point before surges reached Hawaii that it was traveling upwards of 300 miles per hour, and nobody knew exactly what the impact would be once it reached the islands.
View this post on Instagram
“A constellation of satellite radar altimeters — including NOAA’s partnered missions — measure sea surface height and roughness,” the administration says of its forecasting system. “Those measurements provide subtle but detectable signals as tsunamis cross the deep ocean: A small, rapid change in sea level paired with altered surface roughness. The data can support and refine tsunami propagation models, allowing for more accurate predictions of wave travel times and coastal impacts. Additionally, altimeter data can enhance bathymetric models by providing information on ocean bottom topography, which affects tsunami wave speed and direction. This approach is not yet operational at NOAA’s Tsunami Warning Centers.”
Thankfully, this tsunami didn’t wreak too much havoc. According to reports, the biggest impact was in Severo-Kurilsk, a town in the northern Kuril Islands where waves reached up to 16 feet and swept houses and sections of the town’s port out to sea. The Kuril Islands are around 800 miles northeast of Hokkaido, Japan.
