Small tsunami hit Japan after Samoa quake

Larger waves of up to 50 cm!!!!! Holy cow RUN!!!!!!Oh hang on....back in my homeland that would be considered low tide.

If they said waves up to 50 centimeters and finally the waves were "very weak" I guess they should have been of some few centimeters. Seriously, can this be considered a "small tsunami"?

Tsunami is an ocean wave produced by a sub-marine earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. These waves may reach enormous dimensions and have sufficient energy to travel across entire oceans.

Given the fact that there were slightly larger waves that hit the Japan coastline that were caused by a submaring earthquake then yes, they can be considered a small tsunami.

Well. At least we got warning, and I am appreciated for those info.

Look back at 2004 India ocean tsunami. Many country hit hard by the tsunami didn’t have, and many still haven’t had the warning system yet until today.

Even more retard one, like thaksin’s government of Thailand.

That government threatens to sue a meteorological professor in attempt to silent him, and it worked. Because the professor keep telling the government, how important for his country to have a modern tsunami warning system for the southern part of the country because his study show that it had happen before. but people in that government thought that it would hurt the country’s tourist industry!

50cm...you mean, like a normal wave ? is there any group of people more terrified of nature than the japanese ?

The ability to track a tsunami is the important point for me here. A perfect example of technology used responsibly.

50cm tsunami wave is nothing like a wave;if you think of a side view of the ocean, the waves, as in surf, are like the 'lip', a tsunami is the whole body of ocean raising, gosh arent yous aware of that?-totally uncomparable in the way they impact, and also why it can travel such a distance at the speed of a plane.

kavikahi: I agree with you. People complaining about a 50cm tsunami alert should something else to do.

Did some of you people not see the footage of the Boxing Day tsunami? A tsunami is not a wave like you are thinking, it's a constant surge of water that carries all before it, and people died in areas that were hit by a tsunami of not much more than 50cm. Don't think of an ordinary wave- imagine a 50cm high continuous pouring of water towards you, like a river, at quite a fast speed- most people cannot keep their footing in it. That goes on for several minutes. Perhaps better to refrain from making comments if you have no idea what you are talking about.

A 50cm tsunami wave can rip you away. I once surfed when a small tsunami hit, I was amazed how powerful it was, it threw me right on the beach and it wasn't even 50cm.

I don`t know very much about Tsunami but I get the impression that Foxie is right - it is not about the size but the power.

Natural Selection. Let those that bitch about the Japanese paranoia about nature go swimming and the rest of us can live in peace and quiet without unneccesary bitching.

Incidentally there's a reason why the world use the word TSUNAMI for a tidal wave, there's also a reason why the Japanese had one of (if not) the first tsunami response systems.

Even a small tsunami can result in some serious incidents.

Farmboy, they don't know with perfect accuracy what kind of tsunami will arrive. The other option is that they don't issue a warning, and then people are taken by surprise by a larger tsunami than was expected, which can also happen- don't you think it's better to err on the side of caution? Anyone with any intelligence will take all tsunami warnings seriously.

Tsunami or not - one has to feel for the Samoans. They have gone looking for the injured to recovering the dead. A beautiful place shattered by Mother Nature!! May they rest in peace!

I think we got a little of that swell at salina cruz surf was good !