Quote:
Originally Posted by LorraineRN
This is scary; I am watching it now on the news. I am concerned about friends in Hawaii. What do yall think is the probability of a tsunami hitting the West Coast from this?
|
Lorraine, it's highly probable that the tsunami from this quake will reach the U.S. West Coast. The question that can't be answered at this point is the
size & energy of the tsunami that reaches our coast. This is certainly a transoceanic tsunami -- a quake of this size easily generates such a thing. But what can't really be predicted is how powerful a punch this will pack--dozens of factors figure in the equation, including the directional aspects of the rupturing fault (in other words, where the rupture lies on the latitude-longitude grid). We'll have to wait & see. It will be many hours yet before these waves hit the West Coast. They need to cross the entire basin.