1st January 2005, 11:52 AM
That's not entirely true. It's just displacement, with an energy force greater than a nuclear bomb happening underwater the water has to go somewhere. It's possible that the earthquake caused a shelf to fail which would be logical. The plates themselves only move by a few feet at maximum; earthquakes are just slips in pressure afterall. A 20 foot shift would be a huge margin but not impossible. Japan and coastal asia experience tsunamis on a regular basis as well as earthquakes, and I dont believe that each of the earthquakes that formed tsunamis created a shift more than 2 feet or so. I think it's just the release of energy and displacement of water.
I hope it's not a shelf that failed... there's a huge shelf in the atlantic nearer to the coast of Africa but facing in the direction of America. It's predicted that in the event of that shelf failing the resulting wave would be hundreds of feet high and could wipe out every coastal city in eastern America. This recent tsunami was 20 feet above sea level, I dont want to imagine one that's 120 feet... it's measured by volume as well and I forget the formula but for every foot it's millions of gollans more that is displaced. Shnykies.
I hope it's not a shelf that failed... there's a huge shelf in the atlantic nearer to the coast of Africa but facing in the direction of America. It's predicted that in the event of that shelf failing the resulting wave would be hundreds of feet high and could wipe out every coastal city in eastern America. This recent tsunami was 20 feet above sea level, I dont want to imagine one that's 120 feet... it's measured by volume as well and I forget the formula but for every foot it's millions of gollans more that is displaced. Shnykies.