Saturday 16 January 2010
Haiti Moves
Nobody can have failed to miss what happened around Haiti on 12 Jan. You can easily see how the earth moved from this buoy . Ok 'only' a 15 cm wobble but a wobble of that size on a buoy is still pretty big on the land. And it's not a wave aberration - this is a true depth change. Big time stuff. I've been in an earthquake and it wasn't fun. But I was OK and walked on the next day. Some aren't that fortunate.
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Hi Ruth
The sensor on the seabed sends data via an acoustic modem to the buoy, which in turn transmits it via Iridium to the Tsunami Warning Centers and to NDBC (NOAA). The sensor is a very sensitive Paroscientific pressure sensor which monitors the 'weight' of the water directly above it and uses algorithms to filter out everything of a shorter wavelength than a tsunami. This is what is seen on the website. I only know because I was heavily involved about a million years ago! You can also get offshore tides from these stations but the accuracy depends on an assumed average density of seawater. Bounce around each dot and you can see the Pacific and Atlantic tides in various offshore locations. Cool beans. Good blog.
Sometimes I worry I won't understand the geeky comments I get on this blog...but you're still making sense. For now.
PS. You aren't aging too badly for a million years old ;-)
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