Tsunamis and other thoughts

Last Friday another huge earthquake (8.9, if you believe USGS, 9.0 if you want to go with JMA) hit around the Pacific "ring of fire". A little over a year ago an earthquake of similar power struck offshore of Chile. I thought it would be interesting to compare the predicted tsunami height/dispersion maps made by NOAA for each quake. The first image is from the Japan quake: high tsunami heights expected (and occurred) around Japan, with waves propagating radially outward toward the east and southeast. The second image is an eerie reverse of the first: high tsunami heights in southern Chile and waves propagating radially north and northwest. Also interesting is to note the fatalities: much (most?) of Japan's mortal casualties seemed to have died in the tsunami(s), but seems that most of Chile's casualties were from the earthquake itself (perhaps because the tsunami amplitude was far higher in Japan).




Hopefully the world will stop shaking for a little while (my good friends, the Reed family, had their home rocked by another >6.0 earthquake in Christchurch, NZ two weeks ago, their second in about 9 months!)