Coastal residents sought answers to important questions: how large is the wave? How worried should everyone be? And the surfer asked another question about the tsunami: can we surf it?
How do tsunamis form?
Huge waves can cause massive destruction wherever they strike. But what distinguishes normal waves from powerful tsunamis? Here’s what you need to know.
- On July 29th, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck a crash from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
- It urged tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific region.
- The tsunami wave reached Hawaii and the West Coast, but beaches along the West Coast began to reopen as evacuation orders and consultations were later lifted and the threat to the US coast was eased.
As soon as the Tsunami clock was issued, text messages began to come in.
My friends and family wanted to know if I was safe. Will the waves reach me? Should I drive or drive to high altitudes?
As a lifelong surfer who currently lives in Southern California, I am familiar with and familiar with hundreds of different types of waves. I traveled to dozens of countries looking for waves.
The waves are why I moved here to this surf-rich coastline. The ocean gives me energy and gives me space to relax and unplug from the often harsh storylines I follow.
However, the ocean itself can be tough. And on July 29, residents of California coast, Oregon and Washington fought over the answers to important questions. How big will the waves be? How much should everyone be worried? This is the Western hemisphere version of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed almost a quarter of millions?
The surfer asked another question about the tsunami: Can we surf it?
Tsunamis are different from normal surfing waves
A tsunami is not like the normal ocean swelling that surfers ride.
These waves are formed by winds from low pressure regions over the ocean. The wind spins water molecules into ripples, eventually turning into waves and transforms into open ocean “swelling” that can travel thousands of miles before breaking as waves on beaches and coral reefs.
Surfers monitor the Earth’s remote angle weather systems and monitor storms where these inflations push our paths. Websites that grow for more than two weeks have color-coded charts that allow you to plan your surf sessions. All serious surfers in California know that they can now get a rather spectacular southern inflation from Hurricane Iona and Tropical Stormkeli.
Tsunamis form in comparison, suddenly and violently.
Like the July 29 earthquake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, the monumental shift in tectonic plates beneath the sea, measuring a whopping 8.8 on the Richter scale, quickly draining huge amounts of water, and surges in any direction that can form catastrophic waves when it reaches shallow water.
Think of placing it in the bathtub:
Blowing the surface of the water creates small ripples that turn over the edge of the tub like small surf waves. However, if you sit suddenly, there may be a splash on the bathroom floor. It’s your own personal tsunami.
But let’s go more scientific here. The power and size of the waves depend on the combination of factors. The height (or depth) of expansion that produces measured waves from the peak to the trough of each wave running through the ocean. The wavelength of a wave, or “period,” that is, the distance between the peaks of each wave, is the swell. And the sudden things on beaches and land where the waves eventually break.
A more gentle shift from deep sea to shallow water leads to smaller, less intense waves. In contrast, a sudden shift in ocean depth means that the waves suddenly push up, forming a higher wave. That’s why expert surfers are craving waves that break corals and rocky areas.
Despite the dangers lurking below, these waves offer steep, tidy waves known to surf as “slabs,” like Oahu’s infamous Banzai Pipeline, or Tahitian Tief Poo, where the 2024 Olympic Surf took place. These are arenas where surfing gladiators compete and a world away from your average “beach break” where beginners learn to surf.
The X factor with a tsunami is not, as most people think, the “height” of the wave.
What makes tsunamis so dangerous is often the second part of the wave force equation.
Falk Federson, a professor at the Scripps Oceanography Institute in San Diego, explained why tsunamis are so radically different from “normal” waves.
Standing at the end of a long pier, looking down at the ocean waves as the swells run, FedDerson can see that the swell is usually about 200 or 250 feet apart. He said that it is because ocean waves usually have a “period” of 10-20 seconds between the waves.
At the other end of the scale there is a 12-hour or 24-hour period of daily tides that act like a day or two monumental, very slow waves.
Between these extremes there is a tsunami, and the waves often have a period of 10 or 15 minutes between the waves. This means that tsunami waves can be thousands of feet apart, but that also means that the amount of water and the size of the final wave act very differently than the waves that break most days on the California coast.
“Tsutami basically allows all energy, spanning 4,000 meters, to be concentrated in the deep sea. All energy needs to be concentrated in much shallower water.
Put another way, tsunamis are not that “high” when they are in the form of open ocean swells. Rather, it is very “width” or “thick.” At least – that’s my non-scientific way!
But are they possible to appear?
Can I surf the tsunami?
The University of Hawaii, Hiro is Flat Out No. Because there is no face in the tsunami. They “similar to the white water wall,” the university says.
That doesn’t mean that surfers don’t think about these things.
If it turns out that anything that strikes the California coast is not devastating, I have to admit that the surfer inside me has taken over from the journalist.
Surfing is basically flat here in Southern California for a few weeks. Small, sloppy, squealing waves. Instead, I had to run to get training. I hate running.
On the evening of July 29th, I spoke with San Diego County spokesman Chuck Westerheide, asking if officials would patrol the beach and tell people to stay away. No, he said. The county was under tsunami recommendations – far less serious than the tsunami warning.
There is no evacuation. There’s no need to panic.
“Strong currents and tsunamis are possible, and waves and currents can kill or hurt people in the water,” Westerhide said. “But that’s important. People who are in the water.”
After that, I glued to a surf camera overlooking Waikiki Beach on Oahu for several hours. Estimated tsunami times from the Kamchatka earthquake have come and go. The crescent moon on that distinct beach, which should have seen the tsunami long before California, had not broken a large, identifiable, dangerous wave.
I was seduced.
Surfing the tsunami? Do I need to drive to the old haunts of Windancey Beach in San Diego and paddle out?
FedDerson later said that it was probably a bad idea, but admitted that he was not an expert.
“Yeah, this is far beyond my expertise, but I don’t think so,” he said as I asked him if he should surf in the darkness of the night. “But if the tsunami had an amplitude of a foot offshore, you don’t want to be near the coast.”
The tsunami’s amplitude was probably an inch, Fedderson said. I wouldn’t have noticed while I was sitting on the board. Still, are you worried about the sharks shaking in the cold of the night and something that might not even lead to a good ride?
It’s good that I was at home.
