No doubt just the tip of the trashberg of only one country. Hope they don't do this with nuclear power plant waste too.

That is so damned irresponsible. Of course the power-that-be will blame the tsunami.

As reported by the Times of India, an estimated 40 million tons of sea-floor mud has been washed up onto the beaches of Tamil Nadu. The mud is considered to be a source of titanium. Assay results were not reported.

This may help sum up the geological cause of this catastrophic event....

Next on NOVA: "Wave That Shook the World"

http://www.pbs.org/nova/tsunami/

Broadcast: March 29, 2005, 8 p.m.
(NOVA airs Tuesdays on PBS at 8 p.m. Check your local listings as dates and times may vary.)

On December 26, 2004, at 7:59 a.m. local time, an undersea section of the Earth's crust slipped along a 700-mile-long fault off the coast of Sumatra, setting in motion a train of destructive waves called tsunamis that left well over 250,000 people dead or missing. In "Wave That Shook the World," NOVA traces exactly what happened, and why. The program tells the minute-by-minute story of the 2004 tsunami, featuring video footage, eyewitness interviews, and scientific analysis of the onrushing waves that spread for 3,000 miles around the Indian Ocean basin.

Here's what you'll find on the companion Web site:

Inquiry and Your Questions

Wave of the Future
What will it take to be ready for the next major tsunami?

Ask the Expert
Have a question about tsunamis? For a week starting on March 30,
tsunami expert Lori Dengler will answer your e-mailed queries.

Interactives

Anatomy of a Tsunami
Follow the tsunami from its birth at the seafloor to its
devastating collision with coasts around the Indian Ocean.

Once and Future Tsunamis
With this interactive world map, learn about nine tsunamis, and
see where the next one could strike.

Also, join a live chat on Wednesday, March 30 at 3 p.m. ET with Thomas Heaton, professor of engineering and seismology at the California Institute of Technology.

http://www.pbs.org/nova/tsunami/

__________________________________________________________

Ironic that this thread was revived and we get a 8.7 quake in the same region that is said to have spawned a small tsunami to the south.

Ironic and eerie.

I think I'll hold off on posting a recent study on earth / asteroid collisions....

Thank you vgkg!

The forum name may have to be changed to The Twilight Zone.

In that same vein, I am hijacking this thread to discuss the odds of a person from North Dakota, who was born in South Dakota, who has five children and three step children, all boys except the youngest, who works in the oil and gas extraction industry, who just had a birthday 3/24/05, and who happens to be named Monte winning the largest lottery in history. Feel free to post in that context at length and often.

Did I ever mention to you Monte that I think we're related :o)

I would say that the odds of winning that kind of lottery are less than a tsunami washing up to your house.

happy belated birthday greetings, dear lost brother.

cheers, sissie susie and family

PS hi, Uncle Vgkg, please give my regards to Aunt VgQg.

Potential Southern California Tsunami Could Cost up to $42 Billion
By LiveScience Staff

posted: 31 March 2005
12:01 am ET

The warning system covering the Pacific Ocean might save many lives if a tsunami strikes Southern California. But nothing can stop the destruction.

A new study puts the price tag for a worst-case scenario at $42 billion, and that does not include billions of dollars in additional damage caused directly by an earthquake that is pegged as the likely source of a potentially devastating tsunami.

Waves could inundate parts of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Many beach cities and smaller communities in Los Angeles and Orange County would suffer.

And there might not be enough time for a warning to be very useful.

The one-minute warning

The scientists say an underwater landslide just offshore, triggered by an earthquake, could generate a tsunami whose tallest waves would arrive "only one minute after the slide."

Other studies have the Pacific Northwest could be hit swiftly by devastating tsunamis, too. And researchers recently warned of a similar danger to Gulf Coast states. Prior to the tsunami last December, other geologists warned of the risk of mega-tsunamis around the entire Pacific basin from underwater landslides.

The new research was done by geologists, tsunami experts, engineers and urban planners at the University of Southern California. It is detailed in April edition of Civil Engineering magazine.

The group cites recent studies that suggest a large earthquake under the ocean off Los Angeles is likely at some point in the future. And it does not take a 9.0 "great quake," such as the one last December in Indonesia, to do the trick. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake near Papua New Guinea in 1998 generated deadly waves thought to be caused by a submarine landslide, which the earthquake triggered.

"The shaking from an earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater on an offshore thrust or reverse fault would undoubtedly be damaging to coastal communities [in Southern California], and its effect could be greatly magnified if it were to generate a tsunami," the scientists write.

Repeating history

The conclusions draw on evidence from several locally generated small tsunamis that have been recorded over the past 200 years. A Santa Barbara earthquake in 1812 spawned a moderate tsunami that affected more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) of coastline. Evidence of prehistoric events suggest submarine slumps that could have generated tsunamis up to 66 feet (20 meters) tall.

"There will be others," the researchers say, though of course they don't know when or how tall any tsunami might be.

Various scenarios in the study generate loss estimates of between $7 billion and $42 billion directly related to the tsunami. Costs include direct damage as well as the economic costs of lost shipping opportunities and traffic delays owing to damaged freeways.

"We chose not to model fatalities because we were being deliberately conservative, and because we wanted to avoid contentious assumptions about the economic value of life," said study member James Moore II. "The Papua New Guinea tsunami of 1998 was generated by a mechanism similar to the one modeled here, and that event cost over 2,000 lives. The toll here could be much higher."

oops, the above post was not intended as to put a jinx on our friends on the west coast!

Gee, thanks vgkg. I'm over two hundred feet above sea level here at home; the farms only at about one hundred and ten. There are two intervening ridges, though, so only the eastern end might be affected.

Marshall, You are depending too much that wave being only 100ft. tall. The big one might be 1000ft....better come to higher ground.

What!!?? And leave the "banana belt"? A 1000-foot farm around here would have slopes in excess of 50%, thin clays if anything other than regolith or fire-scavaged surface materials. There are intermontane valleys beyond the reach of such tsunamis but these often have very hot and dry summers and cold and dry winters; moreover, much of the groundwater resources have already been depleted. So, guess I'll have to become a rancher.