Well, this tsunami turned out to be a little more eventful than the one last year. Hilo didn't get too much of a wave, but Kona on the west side of the island did. The wave surge in Hilo bay was only about 2 feet, but Kona had an 11 or 12 foot wave that traveled more than 100 feet inland and caused a fair bit of damage to boats in the harbor. Maui and Kaua‘i also had a bit of scattered damage in areas.
Slightly closer to home and more immediately arresting was the easily-detectable magnitude 4.8 earthquake that happened near Kīlauea Thursday night just before 11 PM. The last earthquake I remember being in was in Taiwan, and that's about 10 years ago now, but the familiar back-and-forth shaking sensation was instantly recognizable. The actual location was 28 miles from Hilo according to the U.S.G.S. website, so it didn't do much besides shake for about 5 seconds, but it's still slightly nerve-wracking following so soon on the one near Japan.
Oh, well. As I've remarked to friends before, life always has the potential to be exciting when you're going to school on an island with the world's most active volcano in the middle of the largest ocean on Earth!
I was going to ask you about that. I felt nothing, but some of the exchange students were pretty freaked out about it... I guess the dorms just don't shake very much.
ReplyDeleteWell, Josh and I on the upper floor of our house felt it, but Jonathan on the ground floor didn't. It was a back-and-forth type of shaking, so being in a building off the ground would definitely amplify its effects.
ReplyDeleteIt also wasn't very long, maybe 5 seconds at the most, so it would be easy to miss.