Tsunami at Emerald Bay

January 11, 2005

Emeraldbay

Provided by: Ivar Marthinusen
Summary authors & editors: Ivar Marthinusen

The above photo is a still from a time-lapse video of the December 26 southeast Asian tsunami, coming in over Emerald Bay in Pangkor Laut, Maylasia. Fortunately, it wasn't a big, killer wave when it approached here (about two meters or 6 1/2 feet in height), but the period was extremely long, and it took about two minutes for the wave to come in and recede again. There was no wave-front and no noticeable secondary wave, it was just like the sea just suddenly rose and then receded again. It approached fast enough so that we weren't able to get out of harms way -- we were all soaking wet. For the time-lapse link, one picture was taken every second and then combined using Windows Movie Maker with a Nikon D70 digital camera. Note the all too curious bathers following the wave as it recedes. See also yesterday's Earth Science Picture of the Day.

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