Feb 28 2010
Tsunami Sighting at Channel Islands Harbor
It was a rainy morning which is strange in its own right around here when news reports began to make the rounds that a tsunami of some sort might find its way to Southern California. NOAA even set a time of about 12:30 here. So, I set about getting my chores done so I could be ready (to do what I’m not sure) at the boats. At the very least I wanted to see the docks move. The time came and passed and there was nothing that I could see. So after about 15 minutes I drove back home.
As I rounded the corner the water at the harbor mouth looked more like a river than a bay and I dashed up to my room to grab the camera. Any camera. All batteries were dead. Ack. Ran for the VHF. Yup. Dead battery. I plugged everything in and ran onto the deck to watch the show that had at this point subsided.
You can see why the Powers that Be got excited about this Chile Tsunami with this animation of the 1960 Chilean tsunami
The phone rang and it was Mike, a Member of Bodacious who was down at the docks reporting they had just moved significantly. I got enough juice in the VHF to turn it on and hear a “imminent threat by tsunami of 6-8 feet” pan-pan on it. Apparently the peak of the waves was about a half hour away. Soon after, the commercial fishing fleet tore out of the harbor en masse, as did the oil rig tenders and the big CIA looking ship that’s been hanging out at Hueneme lately. I looked down at my truck with a heavy heart and seriously considered getting in and driving away.
Finally, I had enough juice in one camera to catch the “big one” at about 1:45 pm. The water receded about 3 feet from the harbor. That meant over at kidee beach, the swimming area floats, were dry. There was a huge beach below the Jetty and a steep ledge was created where the dredged channel was. The channel itself was full of whirlpools and looked like a running river as the water receded out of the harbor. By now, Mike had come out here and was down on the “beach” in front of my house catching the action as the harbor drained and then in short order, began to fill up again. I think my video will be hard to tell. But I think Mike got some of the dynamics because he was up close on it.
All in all, this was not your average day at the harbor! As soon as I have a charge I will download the video. My heart goes out to the poor people of Chile suffering the consequences of such a massive earthquake.
[...] It was a rainy morning which is strange in its own right around here when news reports began to make the rounds that a tsunami of some sort might find its way to Southern California. NOAA even set a time of about 12:30 here. So, I set about getting my chores done so I could [...] Direct Link [...]
Cool video you found! I linked it on mine. One weird day huh?
Wild. I heard from a couple of our crew members wives that they saw boats at the back of Ventura Harbor with their keels exposed. Hard to imagine the power of these seismic forces.
What a great experience to observe a tsunami in a non-threatening way. Up here in Central California, the ebb and flow was most dramatic by watching it in reference to the pilings. People who were unaware or not interested could not detect any difference of this phenomenon. An unsecured boat however, did come free and drifted up the channel exhibiting this force of nature.
[...] in all it wasn’t as dramatic as the Chile earthquake just a little over a year ago in this harbor. But with that one, we had one big draw down and then [...]