Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Saturday, March 12, 2011

No Tsunami

While Bella Coola was named in the Tsunami advisory Friday morning, we are all just fine.  No visible effects up this inlet.  It would be hard to imagine a Tsunami generated across the Pacific actually affecting Bella Coola.  When you look at the map you realize the barrier of islands that protect the entrance to the inlet.  I suppose in a 'closer to our coast quake', with a large Tsunami we could experience a sea level rise with a large push of water onto the coast, which at a high tide, would be bad news for part of the townsite of Bella Coola.

I always think more about the potential for a Megatsunami - similar to that which hit Lituya Bay in Alaska in 1958 when an earthquake triggered a large part of the mountain to give way and created a massive wave, an incredible 1,719 feet high! If you look at the landforms in Burke Channel and some of the near vertical mountains that rise up thousands of feet, the scenario of a megatsunami is not out of the realm of possibilities.

On the weather front...nothing to talk about, or I don't want to talk about it - today's picture looking west at the head of North Bentinck Arm says it all. Grizzly

2 comments:

  1. The Bis Island of Hawaii was also designated and unlike Bella Coola had no obstructions to block any potential tsunami from Japan. Sirens went off that night and Kona went nuts, cops, crazies and gas lines, I left and went to my mountain house for a good nights sleep. Anyone within a 1/4 mile of the Ocean was evacuated. West Hawaii suffered only like a 3' high tide but no major damage and evacuation of any one over 30' elevation was unneccessary.

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  2. What a relief! The day a tsunami hits Bella Coola, we will all be in trouble. Love your blog, keep it up!

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