8.8 Quake hits Japan... tsunami warnings issued

[Kevy Baby]

What I had never really thought about/knew about before was how fast a tsunami can travel over an ocean. It is roughly 5,500 miles (from Japan to LA) and I think it took about 11 hours for the waves to arrive (if my memory is correct). This means the waves traveled at 500 MPH, which is consistent to what I see in a quick web search on the speed of a tsunami.

Wow.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

What I had never really thought about/knew about before was how fast a tsunami can travel over an ocean. It is roughly 5,500 miles (from Japan to LA) and I think it took about 11 hours for the waves to arrive (if my memory is correct). This means the waves traveled at 500 MPH, which is consistent to what I see in a quick web search on the speed of a tsunami.

Wow.

Remember, that doesn't mean there was any water traveling at 500MPH. The ENERGY travels that fast, each water molecule transferring the energy to the next without, itself, moving very far at all. Only when the energy wave comes up against something as inconvenient as an island, or a continental shelf, does it then have no where else to go, THEN forcing the water itself to move (at a significantly slower speed).