Tuesday, December 28, 2004

re: tsunami...

here's a picture of ko phi phi from the viewpoint on the west side of the island.

see that sandbar? that's where the hotels are. each hotel is a small hut, made out of 2x4's and bamboo basically. there's a few more blingin' huts on the island, but that's basically what they are. the kind of house that you and 7 of your friends could lift up.

keep in mind the topography/geology of phi phi; it's two karst cliffs - karst is zillion-year-old coral that has petrified and become rock - and between the two cliffs is what amounts to a large sand bar, forming sort of a barbell shape with two mellow bays on either side. the majority of the hotels/bungalows/bars/internet cafes etc. are on that sandbar, at best 6-10 inches above sea level.

so... given the report of 40' high waves... a tsunami, being a comparably mellow wave - if you were in the middle of the ocean and you felt one, you wouldn't notice it unless you were on the titanic. its pitch is low, its wavelength is super long... therefore a 40' high tsunami from such a huge earthquake probably has a wavelength of about 5 miles (this is only a partially educated guess). look back to the sandbar on phi phi and remember it takes about 5 minutes to walk across when you're not limping...

*edit* i just wanted to add that this wave was travelling at about 1000 km/h. that's fast.

i remember eating my breakfast somewhere around the middle of the right side of the sand bar, ao lo dalam - see map. the tide was coming in and i said, "gee, i'd better move to another table, the tide's coming in". it was funny then.

ko phi phi vs. tsunami, guess who won.