Possible pictures of tsunami or just big waves Point Reyes, CA

[KurtT]

Not sure if anyone interested but we were taking pics at Abbott's lagoon at Point Reyes Saturday around 8 am and saw rather large waves at the seashore. Point Reyes Seashore has big waves as a rule but these were rather impressive so a grabbed a few pics and video. We hadn't heard of the tsunami and that they closed the beaches until later when we couldn't go anywhere near the water as rangers had closed all access. There was a strong offshore wind approx 20mph when we arrived so you will see spray pushed back away from shore. These were at 8:45am. First 2 are looking north, last 2 are looking south towards the lighthouse. The tsunami which was around 1- 3 ft per so may have made some of the larger waves and the time of pictures was when it was supposed to arrive. Last pic view at around 12 noon near lighthouse looking north.

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[MorganP]

Nice, cool shots.

 

[KurtT]

Nice, cool shots.

Thanks Morgan. Dumb luck being there at all. Went to do wildlife saw big waves. Didn't know of tsunami till later. Time line fit their arrival.

 

[DanG]

Nice, my favorites are the last two. Thanks for sharing the energy and beauty.

 

[KurtT]

Nice, my favorites are the last two. Thanks for sharing the energy and beauty.

Thanks. I took these more to document the big waves. Videos are much better especially with the sound of crashing waves. They were just the largest ones I had seen there. Rare to get clear days there so the complete beach shot in the last is fun to see. San Andreas fault runs down the right side of that picture in a bay called Tomalas bay so this whole park is separated from California by the fault zone.

 

[Anjin San]

I keep seeing video reports of high waves on the CA coast and most of them appeared to be multiple waves over time…which if you've ever seen the video of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean some years back it's more of a single wave to a couple of crests that goes inland after the water withdraws from the beach first…then the water gradually recedes from the land. Looking at the weather map for the time there were storms off of the LA/SD coast so with that knowledge and the way the waves looked as opposed to actual tsunami effects they looked like everyday storm waves to me. Even in Tonga which is only 30 miles or so from the main island to the volcano the wave was only 4 or 5 feet from what I saw…so the waves 5,000 miles away on the CA coast would be commensurately smaller…I saw several reports that they were in the 1 foot range although how one really tells which wave is the tsunami and which is the everyday ordinary wave I dunno.

 

[Ronny Olsson]

Nice shots !

Ronny

 

[KurtT]

I keep seeing video reports of high waves on the CA coast and most of them appeared to be multiple waves over time…which if you've ever seen the video of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean some years back it's more of a single wave to a couple of crests that goes inland after the water withdraws from the beach first…then the water gradually recedes from the land. Looking at the weather map for the time there were storms off of the LA/SD coast so with that knowledge and the way the waves looked as opposed to actual tsunami effects they looked like everyday storm waves to me. Even in Tonga which is only 30 miles or so from the main island to the volcano the wave was only 4 or 5 feet from what I saw…so the waves 5,000 miles away on the CA coast would be commensurately smaller…I saw several reports that they were in the 1 foot range although how one really tells which wave is the tsunami and which is the everyday ordinary wave I dunno.

Hi Neil. I don't know either which is why I posted that way, can't be sure. I agree that you see one large surge then little ones but since this was volcanic activity and not a fault event, I don't know what that does to the wave action. The ranger told us they expect big swells from tsunami till 2pm that day causing larger than normal waves which set up rip currents which is why they closed all the beaches. When we were at beach, we didn't think anything of it as they were just big waves to us only to find out after leaving of tsunami warning and beach closures. The waves were supposed to be additional 1-3 ft but not sure what final sizes were. Of course, the surfers ignored closed beaches and were out there trying to catch them. Which waves if any in pics are part of the tsunami, can't know from my standpoint, but some of them were huge others just waves so can't tell them apart. They say the Japan earthquake caused more harbor damage than this one did. Thanks for the feedback on this.

 

[KurtT]

Nice shots !

Ronny

Thanks. They aren't as pretty as Iceland but they are close to home. Just nice crashing waves. Video much better with the sound. Every so often a huge wave would come in and make a nice curl and the blowback from the offshore breeze made the great whisp of spray. Unsure which ones related to the tsunami waves and which ones are just waves as I discussed with Neil.