Tsunami - any news from Diego Garcia ?

[ImageGear]

Must be close to the epicentre - :ooh:

[Beeayeate]

Not really, relatively about the same distance as Gan in the Maldives. Gan one of the islands of Addu Atol, southernmost atoll of the Maldives - 42 miles south of the Equator. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos group, about 400 miles further south again. Like the Maldives, they would have experienced waves around 4-5ft at that distance I reckon. Still high enough to swamp the island though as it topped out at around 3-4 ft above sea level when I was there during the initial building stages (Project Reindeer Station).

[Lou Scannon]

I used to spend time in Gan when I was with RAF Eating Command on Hastings and C130's.

Lying on the beach one day I read a story about when Krakatoa errupted off Indonesia and a tidal wave was felt in East Africa.

Working out that my bunk was only around ten feet above MSL I went around suggesting that all rooms be equipped with life jackets.

...and they thought that I was mad.

[MajorMadMax]

This from globalsecurity.org and copied from another forum:

Initial indications are that Diego Garcia was not affected by the Andaman Tsunami of 26 December 2004. It is located south of the tip of India, well with in range of what the tsunami, with a max elevation of 22 and an average elevation of only 4 feet. Civilians monitoring shortwave radio reported on rec.radio.shortwave that a female operator, in answer to a query from an aircraft after giving weather information, reported no ill effects from the earthquake. So everything appears well on Diego Garcia. :ok:

Cheers! M2

[propulike]

News report here (http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2736548) . 6 hours old when I posted it - says the Diego Garcia base emerged unscathed.

Good news for some, God Bless the rest.

[MajorMadMax]

Another reply...

My sources tell me there was only about 3-4' waves with no damage at least to the airfield or downtown. Sounds like it didn't do much of anything other than stir up some mud in the lagoon.

And in this morning\'s Stars & Stripes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/M2_patches/DiegoGarcia.jpg

Again, just confirming they survived pretty much unscathed...

Cheers! M2

[ChristopherRobin]

I think that DG is a volcanic mount, which means that there is no continental shelf to compress the energy of the tsunami upwards. They usually aren't noticed in deep ocean which is where DG sits (i think)

[Flatus Veteranus]

I think C Robin has a good point. Lives were lost on the coast of Somalia, which is a lot further from the epicentre than DG, but presumably the former has a continental shelf over which the waves built up height.

I used to enjoy the occasional stopover at Gan. Snorkelling in the lagoon was good fun. I'm not sure that the guys who did a years' unaccompanied tour there were so keen on it.

Although there were no MQ and no women stationed on Gan, there is a story that some enterprising erk was found on an MI to have caught a dose. Under gruelling cross-examination it seems that a passing VC10 full of wives, NAAFI girls etc had stopped for an ahour or two due to unserviceability, and one of them couldn't shed her knickers fast enough for our hero. "The wages of sin..."

[Beeayeate]

Flatus
I think C Robin has a good point.

C Robin is absolutely on the button, that's why Gan didn't suffer either. Male did because, I believe, it is closer to the Indian sub-continent and lies over or closer to the shelf there. Gan is 42 miles south of the equator and in much deeper oggin.

and . . .
I used to enjoy the occasional stopover at Gan. Snorkelling in the lagoon was good fun. I'm not sure that the guys who did a years' unaccompanied tour there were so keen on it.

You what! It was the whole point. We loved it. A touch of oggin-troggin every day, bubblin' and scaring puffer fish into balloons - and being scared off by groupers, really big mouths they have.

What we didn't "love" was being told to keep away from certain parts of the inner lagoon when you "visitors" were out sunning yourselves and using our glass-bottomed boat, or snorkling in bikinis!

Ref the "bit of the other" tale.
Most prob true but not in my time. You'd be surprised the amount and variety of things that could happen during a Vicky10 turn-round, especially with the Q's (gawds bless their little cotton socks - and other pieces :O :E :E ), and especially the east-bounds.

:ok:

[barry lloyd]

Re Diego Garcia, go to BBC News, Africa, and then to the article about Somalia. In there it says that Diego Garcia was forewarned by the Pacific Tsunami Centre in Hawaii - nice to have friends like that eh? Pity they couldn't warn everyone else.

[ChristopherRobin]

yes I read that, but it sounds like the usual ill-informed press at it again.

Think about it: if its highest point is 22 feet then any warning would be superfluous as wave heights topped out at over 30 feet; DG would have been scrubbed clean. So I think that our original theory of seamount vs continental shelf is more likely to be correct. Also, the Pacific Tsunami centre works off seismographical data and readings from wave amplitude buoys etc, the latter of which there are none in the indian ocean.

This seems like another "criticise the USA article" of which there have been a worrying amount recently. I for one fear for a world where the US doesn't hold its position of pre-eminence.

But so as to not go off-thread, I'll let that one rest - for now.

But please - don't believe everything you read in the newspapers. I doubt half the journos in the british press could even spell Tsunami before Boxing day, never mind give an analysis as to why DG can breathe a big sigh of relief.

[Beeayeate]

Well said CR.

:ok:

[propulike]

Actually, I think that Diego Garcia is an atoll, a low lying island surrounded by coral reefs, and not a volcanic island. Ascension Island is the volcanic mount, hence all the warnings about rip currents to swimmers there.

Topography did save the B.I.O.T. from being another member of the catastrophe, but on a larger scale than local.

From Wikipedia :
The island and base were unaffected by the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Service personnel on the island reported only a minor increase in wave activity. The island was protected by its favourable ocean topography. East of the atoll lies the 650-kilometre-long Chagos Trench, an underwater canyon plunging more than 5000 metres. The depth of the Trench and its grade to the shore makes it difficult for tsunami to build before passing the atoll, In addition, undersea coral reefs may have dissipated much of the waves' impact[4]

Apologies if I'm mistaken about the geography and Happy New Year.

[barry lloyd]

Now we're getting somewhere! Propulike is spot on. Read what little information there is about DG, and it becomes clear that the Chagos trench saved the area from any major destruction (thank God for that!). Would that the Maldives and Sri Lanka had the same protection. As for the America-bashing. How long has it taken the British President (sorry Prime Minister) to issue a statement about this catastrophe? A lot longer than his counterpart in the USA. People who live in glass houses don't throw stones...

[ChristopherRobin]

correctomondo. I speculated that DG was volcanic, but the true cause of its salvation is geographic, NOT political NOAA conspiracy theories.

So...we're all agreed then? Thank God DG's ok. It is kinda important.

[UNCTUOUS]

The cheapest and most efficient Indian Ocean Littoral Tsunami Warning System would be local warning siren systems (alert / 30mins /20mins /10mins / imminent distinctive aural alarms) activated by NOAA seismologists' warnings being throughputted to all addressees via the AFTN (Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) with a FLASH Prefix.

The AFTN sends important messages quite quickly. Beats a fax or phone-calling system.

Any comments?

[pr00ne]

CR,

Thank God DG's ok. It is kinda important.

I think that depends upon your view of current world events!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

It could also be useful for logistics for helping the victims of the tsunami..............

[Beeayeate]

I think that depends upon your view of current world events!

Indeed it does Mr Proone, indeed it does. We must thank you for your cogent, if not to say insightful, opinion in this matter. It must gladden your heart Mr Proone, if not your very soul, that such an entity as the USA exists at all, because if it didn't you would surely have to invent it in order to have any opinion at all.

[pr00ne]

B(I)8,

Have you been drinking?

[Beeayeate]

Have you been drinking?

Alas no Mr Proone, not since last evening otherwise I would never have noticed the smouldering enmitty in your first post. But I thank you for your concern and note, with passing amusement, the feigned jocularity of your reply which neatly side-steps the gist of my previous. Masterfully done Mr Proone, masterfully done. And it's only the second day of a brand new year!

[pr00ne]

B(I)8,

If you've not been drinking you've been on something you shouldn't.

Smouldering enmitty, feigned jocularity?? Boy do you have a problem.

[zorab64]

If unsure about the whys & wherefores of whether the Tsunami should have engulfed D-G, take a look at the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Overview clear and frightening explanation of the power involved in this disaster.

[Trumpet_trousers]

....why don't you start another thread instead of hijacking this one? You could even call it "my will*'s bigger than yours," or some such .......
....What a great shame that in the face of such a major disaster like this that you two have to resort to such childish behaviour:mad:

[Beeayeate]

Sorry.

:sad: :sad:

[MajorMadMax]

A good news story...

Girl saved tourists thanks to school lesson

LONDON (Reuters) - A 10-year-old British girl saved 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami having warned them a giant mass of water was on its way after learning about the phenomenon weeks earlier at school.

"I was on the beach and the water started to go funny," Tilly Smith told the Sun at the weekend from Phuket, Thailand.

"There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden. I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy."

While other holidaymakers stood and stared as the disappearing waters left boats and fish stranded on the sands, Tilly recognised the danger signs because she had done a school project on giant waves caused by underwater earthquakes.

Quick action by Tilly's mother and Thai hotel staff meant Maikhao beach was quickly cleared, just minutes before a huge wave crashed ashore. The beach was one of the few on the Thai island of Phuket where no-one was killed.

Her teacher, Andrew Kearney, paid tribute to his quick-thinking student.

"Tilly is a very bright, level-headed girl ... it is an incredible coincidence that our class were learning about this type of tsunami just two weeks before Christmas," he told the newspaper.

On Sunday, the Foreign Office said 40 Britons were confirmed dead from the December 26 tsunami which claimed some 130,000 victims. The toll is expected to rise.

[pr00ne]

Trumpet_trousers,

…”that you two have to resort to such childish behaviour ”……….



He started it………………………………………………………………………………………

[buoy15]

UNC

Yeah great in slow time

This was a big one and happened in nano seconds; the plates moved 200m in a split second and created a 200ft wave from the epicentre; by the time it was registered it was too late, it was on the way. How do you employ a warning system for a castrophe when you don't know where it's going to happen? Who do you blame when it happens? Who's next? California?

[rotornut]

Why is the US suddenly interested in this Turkish airbase? Is Diego Garcia still viable?

Top US general asks Turkey to use key air base

Tue Jan 11,11:48 AM ET

ANKARA (AFP) - The United States would like to use a key Turkish air base to provide logistical support for its troops deployed in Iraq, the head of the US Central Command said.

The Incirlik base, in southern Turkey, "is a Turkish base, not an American base. We look forward to use the facilities there as an ally," General John Abizaid told reporters Tuesday after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

"It is good for us, it is good for Turkey if we can use those facilities," Abizaid added, without elaborating.

The Incirlik base was used by US and British warplanes to patrol the no-fly zone over northern Iraq from between the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Ankara then limited the use of the base to logistical and humanitarian purposes. US forces have also used the base for refuelling and troop rotations into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abizaid said his talks with Gul had also focussed on Turkish-US cooperation in Afghanistan.

"We are very satisfied in particular with our cooperation in Afghanistan," the general said.

Turkey is preparing to take over in February the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for a duration of six months.

Ankara, which had led ISAF for six months as of July 2002, is expected to contribute more than 1,400 soldiers to the force, which is made up of 8,300 soldiers from more than 30 countries serving in Kabul and nine provinces north of the capital.

[propulike]

RN,

I think a quick glance at an atlas would answer your question. One base is several thousands of miles away, the other is in a country sharing a border with Iraq.

[rotornut]

propulike,
I can't disagree with you on that. Perhaps it's just a coincidence but I still find it interesting that the US would show so much interest in Turkey right after the tsunami disaster. And DG was reported as having been spared the brunt of the force of the wave.