M6.9 quake jolts Okinawa Prefecture

How can you tell there were 10cm waves generated? Wouldn't they be covered by the normal wave activity? And tsunamis travel at hundreds of miles per hour on the open ocean.

The quake woke me up, it lasted a fairly long time (a minute?) It broke some glass in the kitchen, and I couldn't get back to sleep. It'll be a long day at work for me today, but at least it wasn't too serious.

It would be a little progress in journalism if you would not publish such nonsense as: "tsunamis travel at hundreds of miles per hour"....

Tyler Durden

It would be a little progress in journalism if you would not publish such nonsense as: "tsunamis travel at hundreds of miles per hour"....

What are you talking about? They can hit upto 500mph in deep ocean areas!

yup, it woke the hell out of me too! i thought it would never stop the way it keep escalating.. couldn't go back to bed after all happened because all the ojii and obaa were all out on the street talking about it!!

Tsunami waves, even 10cm high, would be noticed basically because they are not waves but a surge of water which keeps coming. Whereas waves break and draw back tsunamis just keep going inland. Wouldn't you notice something out of the ordinary if you lived 100m inland and sea water was going down your street, even if it was just 10cm high? That is what a tsunami is. Every time something like this happens there are always people posting thinking that a tsunami is an ordinary wave and that a 50cm tsunami would be nothing to worry about. No doubt they are the same people who go down to the beach to see them.

So that was only a 6.9? It managed to keep me awake for a second... almost more.

10cm? that's what I get in my bath... don't you mean 10m?????

It would be a little progress in journalism if you would not publish such nonsense as: "tsunamis travel at hundreds of miles per hour"....

Tyler Durden

It's not nonsense. It's true.

On the topic of Earthquakes - massive 8.3 being reported in Chile in the last hour.

PenelopePitstop, read what I read above. You don't get 10m tsunamis, thankfully. Many people were killed by 1m "waves" in the Boxing Day tsunami. A continuous flow of water, even 10cm high, is something noticeable, if not dangerous. It's still a tsunami.

For those of you not familiar with 10 centimeters, it is a massive 4 inch wave...ooooooooooooooohhh......

10cm is small - but it is the force of it that is the dangerous thing. That 10cm wave is possibly like being hit by a tonne of bricks. It's force would send you flying. Wouldn't wanna be surfing when that hit!

On the topic of Earthquakes - massive 8.3 being reported in Chile in the last hour.

An 8.3-inch tsunami is massive, as Sharky will tell you.

10 meters would be awesom for body boarding, but 10 cm would not even clean my fins

The quake also brought down a portion of the wall of Katsuren Castle, one of the 9 UNESCO sites on the island.

I have read unconfirmed reports that the resulting Tsunami has destroyed Easter Island and all of the World Heritage listed Moai statues. Apparently, - according to a good friend - the island no longer exists. The Tsunami may be in Japan tomorrow morning - keep your heads down everyone.

Just saw a news report that a 3-4 Metre Tsuname will hit Japan at around 10 AM this morning. I'm serious guys - batten down the hatches, as they say... people living on the coastline of Japan (admittedly, almost no-one in Japan lives near Sea) should head inland somewhere. Good luck everyone - lets pray it is not as bad as the Asian Boxing Day Tsunami of a few years back.

Not according to this..

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/joho.html

For the people who don't understand what a tsunami is: it's not a 10cm "wave". It's a temporary change in sea level. And it comes in force, not gradually. The Boxing Day tsunami wasn't a 1m wave, it was a 1m rise in sea level.

If there really is going to be a 3m tsunami hitting Japan at 10:00 am, I wouldn't be anywhere within 10 km of the shoreline or the mouth of a river.

Seismic activity in Okinawa... then Chile... It seems that activity anywhere along the Ring of Fire begets activity somewhere else.

I hope that Mother Earth is over her bit of rippling in so many places by the sea shores for there is not a think use humans can do about it.

Still do remember that on the Pacific Coast side of North America is the BIG ONE that will come in a while to hit California & right up into the Pacific coast terrain of Vancouver Island to Vancouver itself & even farther north. Which is enough to give one a bit of a worry.

volland - please do a bit of reseach. in open water tsunamis travel at high speed. they slow down once they reach the coast.

For the people who don't understand what a tsunami is: it's not a 10cm "wave".

One other thing to mention is that oftentimes buoys record wave heights and they seem small like 10 or 20 or 30 cm. But these buoys are off the coast, so the waves are not as tall as they will be when they reach the coastline. As the waves approach land, they become significantly taller.