8.8 earthquake hits Chile; tsunami alert for Pacific

Friend of mine has family staying about 100 yards from the beach in Maui. It's not in the area expected to be hardest hit, and they've moved everyone to the 8th floor or higher just to be safer. He said they thought about driving inland further, but the traffic is obviously at a standstill.

This article makes it sound like it won't be too devastating. Two-three foot waves for most of the Hawaii islands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28warning.html

 

Building codes.

 

That can't explain it all. 500 to 1,000 times more powerful; that's hard to comprehend.

I'd have to think that if it had happened as close to a major city as Haiti's did, the destruction would be mammoth, regardless of building codes.

 

The depth makes the biggest difference. If it's centered further down, the damage will be mitigated significantly.

 

I know there are buoys to detect tsunamis off US states, but you'd think there would be some satellite somewhere (or a boat or two) that is somewhere between Chile and Hawaii that could give the ocean a look see instead of just waiting three hours.

 

I guess 4 p.m., EST will be a little tense for the people of Hawaii.

 

The Richter scale is a logarithmic function. Which means a 2.0 quake is 10 times more powerful than a 1.0 quake. A 3.0 quake is 100 times more powerful than a 1.0 quake.

 

Is anyone watching the live feed from Waikiki beach on the Advertiser's site?

 

Yes

 

My internet was being twitchy earlier, but it's finally streaming the feed. Also have msnbc on, watching their coverage.

 

I have CNN on.

This is facinating.

 

It's like the Calipari door, but with water.