February 27, 2010 Crescent City, California tsunami from M8.8 Chile earthquake

Video of first 3 hours of tsunami inundation at small boat basin entrance of Crescent City harbor. Tsunami produced by M8.8 offshore Chile earthquake.

The processed video is sped up by about 20X so that 3 hours is reproduced to be about 8.5 minutes in length.

Note, the tsunami is not a wall of water but a series of long period waves, seen here as strong shifting currents in and out of the small boat basin. The surging and waning portions of the tsunami are about 15 minutes apart. This small boat basin typically has little or no current across the entrance.

The anticipated maximum crest to trough amplitude of the tsunami was estimated by the West Coast Tsunami Warning Center to be about 0.6 m (2 ft). The change in sea level height is evident by the change in water height on the end of the rocky break-water directly across the channel.

Several fishing and pleasure vessels moved out of the basin in advance of the tsunami. A few of them return during the course of the video and can be seen negotiating the channel in the swift currents of the tsunami.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tsunami
• Crescent
• City
• Chile
• 2010
• video
• M8.8
• earthquake

[mauro1970mgvr]

Incredible footage. Well done, the activity past 3 minutes is unbelievable considering the tsunami originated thousands of miles away.

[raymi13]

Pretty cool video. Mother earth is amazing.

[leevwj4]

@ehhaley dude.i mean.c'mon..don't you knoe that the video is being fast forward and plus..those seagulls ain't gonna stay in one spot and float thier..there more energetic then you think they are...i knoe cause i lived here and i beat the fuck out of the one that fly by and bomb me...as in take a shit ..you knoe and ..they move alot more then what you think and.we just had a tsunami this past week..so go check it out..and you'll knoe the difference between a fake one like this...from a real one

[leevwj4]

@booyadan16 well ofcourse i knoe that...but that boat is going in and out of the harbor like nothing happen...i mean c'mon.....

[deltron2033]

i would take a jet boat and have some fun!

[bradschillin]

I would jet ski like crazy in that!

[kealiiballao]

the birds are having a wild ride.

[gymnastickatie]

:O Thats all I can say

[ThePinkoreo2]

Its just getting bigger and bigger :o then it recedes which is the sign of the tsunami hitting :O

[ThePinkoreo2]

Its just getting bigger and bigger :o