No, you can't outrun a tsunami

This video shows the panic of some people trying to outrun the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

You can see in the video the horrific force of the tsunami as it hits and how fast the tsunami was.

People trying to climb a hill to get away from the waves, while others are trying to help.

The video also shows the courage of other people that ran back down the hill to try and save some people, only to be swept away themselves.
Despite their efforts, the speed of the rising water engulfs the person they are trying to save -- and one of the rescuers appears to disappear.

The man in the red jacket can be seen through the trees.

From LiveSciences

Maybe the fastest man in the world could run a 6-minute mile for 6 miles (10 kilometers) while a terrifying wall of water chased him through a coastal city.
But most people couldn't.

Yet a myth persists that a person could outrun a tsunami.
That's just not possible, tsunami safety experts told LiveScience, even for Usain Bolt, one of the world's quickest sprinters.
Getting to high ground or high elevation is the only way to survive the monster waves.

"I try to explain to people that it doesn't really matter how fast [the wave] is coming in, the point is that you really shouldn't be there in the first place," said Rocky Lopes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Tsunami Mitigation, Education and Outreach program.

But because they didn't know the warning signals, ignored them or just couldn't get to safety in time, more than 200,000 people died in tsunamis in the past decade.
And it's not just tsunamis: Underestimating the power of the ocean kills thousands every year in hurricane storm surges.

 Tsunamis gain height as they approach the shore.
CREDIT: NOAA

Stay off the beach

A tsunami is a series of waves caused by a sudden underwater earth movement.
The kick-off is akin to dropping a big rock in a children's pool filled with water.
In an ocean basin, tsunami waves slosh back and forth, reflecting off coastlines, just like the (much smaller) waves in a child's pool, Lopes said.

Because many people mistakenly think a tsunami is a single wave, some return to the beach after the first wave hits, Lopes said.
On March 11, 2011, a man in Klamath River, Calif., died after he was swept away by a second wave while taking pictures of the Japan tsunami, Lopes said.

Tsunamis race across the deep ocean at jet speed, some 500 mph (800 km/h).
Near shore, the killer waves slow to between 10 to 20 mph (16 to 32 km/h) and gain height.
If the offshore slope is gentle and gradual, the tsunami will likely come in looking like a rapidly approaching tide.
If the transition from deep ocean to shoreline is steep and cliff-like, then the wave will resemble a movie-like specter, arriving as an onrushing wall of water.
[Waves of Destruction: History's Biggest Tsunamis] 

Water receding on the beaches of Santa Cruz, Calif., on March 11, 2001,

just after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan

Credit: @darrenmason

Look and listen for warning signs

Either way, standing at the beach, at sea level, means losing perspective.
"It's a matter of optical illusion and how fast your eye interprets the speed of moving water," Lopes said.
"People just can't estimate the speed of the wave, and [so they] get themselves in trouble."

Linger too long and you may run out of time to find somewhere safe.
"If they're on the beach, there's no way in heck they're going to outrun it," said Nathan Wood, a tsunami modeler with the U.S. Geological Survey in Portland, Ore.
"Technically, if you're 10 blocks in, and the waves are full of debris [and slowing from friction], there's a chance, but for most people that's not realistic," he said.

So if the beach starts shaking or the ocean looks or sounds strange, head for the highest elevation around immediately.
"Sometimes the only warning you may get are these environmental clues," Lopes said.
"These are the indicators that you are in serious danger."

High ground is best in situations like these; steel-reinforced concrete buildings or parking structures work in a pinch, but even climbing trees will help if nothing else is available.
Some people who sought refuge in trees survived the 1960 Chile tsunami, though others were torn from their branches.

 Storm surge floods a section of Coast Guard Station New York, located on Staten Island, as Hurricane Sandy approaches New York Harbor, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012.
CREDIT: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Erik Swanson.

Why people put themselves at risk

Another fatal mistake people make when fleeing from tsunamis is underestimating how far the water can travel inland, Lopes said.
In this graphic video of the 2011 Japan tsunami, shot from a hillside, residents fleeing the tsunami are nearly caught by the powerful wave even after it had already destroyed half the town.

Tsunamis can travel as far as 10 miles (16 km) inland, depending on the shape and slope of the shoreline.

Hurricanes also drive the sea miles inward, putting people at risk.
But even hurricane veterans may ignore orders to evacuate.
As with tsunamis, a lack of understanding lays at the heart of this willingness to risk everything, according to studies by NOAA.
"We've consulted with social scientists and communications experts, and the number one reason why people stay is that they don't understand storm surge," said Jaime Rhome, storm surge team leader at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Hurricane evacuation orders are due to dangers from storm surges, not wind, Rhome explained. "People are enamored with the wind, but it's storm surge that has the greatest potential to take life," he said.
"The majority of deaths occurring in hurricanes are from drowning, not wind."

Storm surge is the force of hurricane winds driving the ocean landward, which raises sea level.
The water penetrates miles inland.
Waves kicked up by the hurricane travel on top of the storm surge, pounding everything in their path. People who go out in the surge — residents who wait too long to evacuate, for example — may find themselves knocked off their feet and swept away.

"People have a hard time imagining seawater can come that far inland," Rhome said.
"They can't envision the ocean can rise that high or be that violent."

Canada CHS update in the Marine GeoGarage

3462 Juan de Fuca Strait to Strait of Georgia

31 charts have been updated (May 31, 2013) :

• 1202 CAP ETERNITE TO SAINT-FULGENCE
• 1209 SAINT-FULGENCE TO RIVIERE SHIPSHAW
• 1220 BAIE DES SEPT ILES
• 2024A BUCKHORN TO GANNON NARROWS AND HARRINGTON NARROWS
• 2024B GANNON NARROWS TO BOBCAYGEON
• 2024C CHEMONG LAKE
• 2024D PIGEON LAKE (SOUTH PORTION)
• 2024E PIGEON LAKE (NORTH PORTION)
• 3441 HARO STRAIT BOUNDARY PASS AND SATELLITE CHANNEL
• 3461 JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT EASTERN PORTION
• 3462 JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT TO STRAIT OF GEORGIA
• 3478 PLANS SALTSPRING ISLAND
• 3538 DESOLATION SOUND AND SUTIL CHANNEL
• 3606 JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT
• 3743 DOUGLAS CHANNEL
• 3908 KITIMAT HARBOUR
• 4010 BAY OF FUNDY INNER PORTION
• 4011 APPROACHES TO BAY OF FUNDY
• 4012 YARMOUTH TO HALIFAX
• 4142A EVANDALE TO RAM ISLAND
• 4142B RAM ISLAND TO ROSS ISLAND
• 4142C WASHADEMOAK LAKE
• 4142D GRAND LAKE
• 4337 ALMA AND APPROACHES
• 4379 LIVERPOOL HARBOUR
• 4483 CARIBOU HARBOUR
• 4622 CAPE ST MARY'S TO ARGENTIA HARBOUR AND JUDE ISLAND
• 4659 PORT AU PORT
• 4841 CAPE ST. MARY'S TO ARGENTIA
• 4862 CARMANVILLE TO BACALHAO ISLAND AND FOGO
• 5640 CHURCHILL HARBOUR

So 704 charts (1660 including sub-charts) are available in the Canada CHS layer. (see coverage)

Note : don't forget to visit 'Notices to Mariners' published monthly and available from the Canadian Coast Guard both online or through a free hardcopy subscription service.
This essential publication provides the latest information on changes to the aids to navigation system, as well as updates from CHS regarding CHS charts and publications.
See also written Notices to Shipping and Navarea warnings : NOTSHIP

Cuba looks to undo decades of poorly planned coastal development, fend off rising seas

1.2 miles: distance that seawater would penetrate inland in Cuba by 2100, according to scientists
10,000 : number of sanctions and fines handed down for illegal development along Cuba's coast
$2.5 billion: annual tourism revenue in Cuba

From Washington Post

After Cuban scientists studied the effects of climate change on this island’s 3,500 miles (5,630 kilometers) of coastline, their discoveries were so alarming that officials didn’t share the results with the public to avoid causing panic.

 >>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

The scientists projected that rising sea levels would seriously damage 122 Cuban towns or even wipe them off the map.
Beaches would be submerged, they found, while freshwater sources would be tainted and croplands rendered infertile.
In all, seawater would penetrate up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) inland in low-lying areas, as oceans rose nearly three feet (85 centimeters) by 2100.

Climate change may be a matter of political debate on Capitol Hill, but for low-lying Cuba, those frightening calculations have spurred systemic action.
Cuba’s government has changed course on decades of haphazard coastal development, which threatens sand dunes and mangrove swamps that provide the best natural protection against rising seas.

In recent months, inspectors and demolition crews have begun fanning out across the island with plans to raze thousands of houses, restaurants, hotels and improvised docks in a race to restore much of the coast to something approaching its natural state.
“The government ... realized that for an island like Cuba, long and thin, protecting the coasts is a matter of national security,” said Jorge Alvarez, director of Cuba’s government-run Center for Environmental Control and Inspection.

At the same time, Cuba has had to take into account the needs of families living in endangered homes and a $2.5 billion-a-year tourism industry that is its No. 1 source of foreign income.

It’s a predicament challenging the entire Caribbean, where resorts and private homes often have popped up in many places without any forethought.
Enforcement of planning and environmental laws is also often spotty.

With its coastal towns and cities, the Caribbean is one of the regions most at risk from a changing climate.
Hundreds of villages are threatened by rising seas, and more frequent and stronger hurricanes have devastated agriculture in Haiti and elsewhere.

In Cuba, the report predicted sea levels would rise nearly three feet by century’s end.
“Different countries are vulnerable depending on a number of factors, the coastline and what coastal development looks like,” said Dan Whittle, Cuba program director for the New York-based nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.
He said the Cuban study’s numbers seem consistent with other scientists’ forecasts for the region.
The Associated Press was given exclusive access to the report, but not permitted to keep a copy.

 NGA chart #27084

Cuba’s preparations were on clear display on a recent morning tour of Guanabo, a popular getaway for Havana residents known for its soft sand and gentle waves 15 miles (25 kilometers) east of the capital.

Where a military barracks had been demolished, a reintroduced sand-stabilizing creeper vine known as beach morning glory is reasserting itself on the dunes, one lavender blossom at a time.

The demolition nearby of a former swimming school was halted due to the lack of planning, with the building’s rubble left as it lay.
Now inspectors have to figure out how to fix the mess without doing further environmental damage.

Alvarez said the government has learned from such early mistakes and is proceeding more cautiously.
Officials also are also considering engineering solutions, and even determining whether it would be better to simply leave some buildings alone.

For three decades Guanabo resident Felix Rodriguez has lived the dream of any traveler to the Caribbean: waking up with waves softly lapping at the sand just steps away, a salty breeze blowing through the window and seagulls cawing as they glide through the crisp blue sky.
Now that paradise may be no more.

“The sea has been creeping ever closer,” said Rodriguez, a 63-year-old retiree, pointing to the water line steps from his apartment building.
“Thirty years ago it was 30 meters (33 yards) farther out.”
“We’d all like to live next to the sea, but it’s dangerous ... very dangerous,” Rodriguez said.
“When a hurricane comes, everyone here will just disappear.”

Cuban officials agree, and have notified him and 11 other families in the building that they will be relocated, though no date has been set.
Rodriguez and several other residents said they didn’t mind, given the danger.

Since 2000, Cuba has had a coastal protection law on the books that prohibits construction on top of sand and mandates a 130-foot-wide (40-meter) buffer zone from dunes.
Structures that predate the measure have been granted a stay of execution, but are not to be maintained and ultimately will be torn down once they’re uninhabitable.

Serious enforcement only began in earnest in recent months, as officials came armed with the risk assessment.
Some 10,000 sanctions and fines have been handed down for illegal development, according to Alvarez.
Demolitions have so far been limited to vacation rentals, hotel annexes, social clubs, military installations and other public buildings rather than private homes.
“Less strict measures have been taken with the people,” Alvarez said, acknowledging that relocating communities is tough in a country with a critical lack of adequate housing.

 Varadero, situated on the Hicacos Peninsula,
between the Bay of Cárdenas and the Straits of Florida,
some 140 km east of Havana
(NGA chart)

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

One flashpoint is the powdery-white-sand resort of Varadero, a two-hour’s drive east of the capital, where lucrative hotels attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Some 900 coastal structures have been contributing to an average of about 4 feet (1.2 meters) of annual coastline erosion, according to geologist Adan Zuniga of Cuba’s Center for Coastal Ecosystems Research, a government body.
Building solid structures on top of dunes makes them more vulnerable to the waves.
“These are violent processes of erosion,” Zuniga said about regional development. “In many places the beaches are receding 16 feet (5 meters) a year.”

Varadero symbolizes Cuba’s dilemma: Tearing down seaside restaurants, picturesque pools and air-conditioned hotels threatens millions of dollars in yearly tourism revenue, but allowing them to stay puts at risk the very beaches that were the draws in the first place.

Cuban officials have tried to get around that choice by replenishing lost sand in Varadero, with plans to do the same next year at the Cayo Coco resort.
But beach replenishment is an expensive remedy that Cuba can little afford to carry out nationwide.
Zuniga said it costs $3 to $8 per cubic meter, and a single beach might contain up to 1 million cubic meters of sand.
The measure will still be necessary at Cayo Coco although the resort was developed with environmental mitigations such as keeping hotels behind the tree line and running a hydraulic system that keeps water circulating properly in an inland lagoon.

There are no publicly available figures on how many structures have been or will be razed across Cuba.
Alvarez and Zuniga said officials are evaluating problem buildings on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the needs of local economic development.
They say nothing is off-limits; even the emblematic Hotel Internacional, a four-story resort built in 1950 as a sibling to the Fontainebleau in Miami, has been doomed to demolition in Varadero at an unspecified date.

Other installations are gradually being moved inland, and government officials are applying stricter oversight on new construction, they said.
In May, authorities unveiled the near-completed Hotel Melia Marina Varadero and yacht club, which lies at a safe remove from the sea.

Cuba’s Communist government wields a unique advantage, one no other country in the region claims: The government and its subsidiaries control the island’s entire hotel stock, sometimes teaming with minority foreign partners on management.
Cuba’s military-run Gaviota Group alone controls more than three-dozen major hotels.

So when the government makes up its mind to tear down a hotel, it can do so without having to worry about fighting a lengthy court battle against a displaced owner.

On top of that, oversight of the coastal initiative happens at the highest level possible: Cuba’s ruling Council of State, headed by President Raul Castro.
“He is leading this battle,” Alvarez said of Castro.

Whittle said the island can learn some things from Costa Rica, where significant swaths of coastal and inland terrain have been protected even as tourism flourishes.
For Cuba, there’s a lot riding on striking the right balance.

“Will Cuba become a sustainable destination like Costa Rica?” Whittle asked.
“Or will it go the way of Cancun and much of the rest of the Caribbean that has essentially sacrificed natural areas, marine and coastal ecosystems for economic development in the short run?”

Francis Joyon shatters North Atlantic record by more than 16 hours

Arrival Sunday afternoon

In his quest to beat the North Atlantic single-handed sailing record, Francis Joyon on board IDEC, has smashed Thomas Coville’s 2008 record by 16 hours, 34 minutes and 30 seconds.

Joyon completed his journey in a time of 5 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes and 10 seconds.

Routes of Thomas Coville vs Francis Joyon (in red orthodromy)
zoom on arrival at Cape Lizard
Great Circle distance : 2,865 NM • Average speed : 23.30 Kts
Distance Over Ground : 3,222 NM • SOG : 26.20 Kts

Over the final stretch, Francis Joyon came very close to beating his own outright distance record over 24 hours (666.2 miles) and this enabled the Breton skipper to make important gains over the second half of the crossing, in spite of sailing some distance away from the Great Circle Route.

 Joyon, with the loyal support of router Jean-Yves Bernot achieves
the unique feat of holding all four major solo offshore sailing records.
photo J-M Liot

Oarfish – the sea serpent of ancient times

Video of the Oarfish, Regalecus glesne, on 5 August 15 2011 :

an ROV operated by Mako Technologies working for Hornbeck Offshore Services

was conducting seafloor and water column biotic surveys as
part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill NRDA at a depth of 62 m.

From HuffingtonPost

A remotely operated vehicle has come face-to-face with the world's longest-known bony fish -- and video footage of the rare encounter has now surfaced on YouTube.
Check it out above.
The giant oarfish was found in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where four other observations were reported.
These spottings happened between 2008 and 2011, and they recorded the fish at its deepest undersea level yet, at least 463 meters below the surface.
The giant oarfish, named Regalecus glesne, is rarely seen alive.
Most observations come from the bizarre creature washing ashore.
But this new video sheds light on how the fish may behave in its natural habitat.
A paper on these observations was published online in the Journal of Fish Biology on June 5, 2013.

 Ichthyologist Carl Leavitt Hubbs (right) and colleague display a giant oarfish in 1968.

Oarfish, also known as ribbonfish and king of herrings, is a deep water creature that can grow up to a size of 50 feet (15 meters) in length and weigh up to 600 pounds (272 kg).
This deep sea creature is officially the longest bony fish living at a depth of between 66 feet and 1000 feet.
It is known that when oarfish gets sick or is near to death it comes on the surface of the water and sometimes to the shore, that’s why we have ancient tales of seeing sea serpents coming out of the water surface.

A 16 feet oarfish that was found on the shore of Bermuda beach in 1860 was described as sea serpent (image below).
There are no scales on the fish and it’s not edible due to its gelatinous flesh.

 The above photography was actually taken in 1996 and shows a giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) found on the shore of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.

This extremely rare specimen was 23 ft (7.0 m)

 Oarfish Regalecus glesne December 26th 1993 Isla San Marcos B.C.S. Mexico