Photos of a tsunami

[Blackadar]

Interesting stuff...

The photos can be seen on the bottom right-hand side of the story.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/02/24/tsunami.digital.photos.ap/index.html

Recovered digital photos show tsunami wave
Canadian couple who took photos died

Thursday, February 24, 2005 Posted: 12:17 PM EST (1717 GMT)

VANCOUVER, Canada (AP) -- Photographs from the camera of a Canadian couple killed in Asia's tsunami include their final shots of a huge wave as it rushed toward them at their beach resort in Thailand.

John and Jackie Knill of North Vancouver, frequent visitors to the popular Thai resort, Khao Lak, were apparently on the beach when the tsunami hit December 26.

The couple disappeared and relatives say they were notified about a week ago that the identities of their remains had been confirmed.

Searchers later also recovered the couple's destroyed digital camera but were able to print photos from its memory card.

In a sequence of photos over the course of a few minutes, some curious onlookers are shown wandering onto suddenly exposed tidal flats, a sign of the impending tsunami. In one, a large wave appears to be breaking in the distance.

The pictures show that within minutes, the wave grows larger and some beachgoers begin to take notice.

"I don't know why they didn't run," their son Christian Knill told Global TV in Vancouver. "Either they knew they couldn't or they didn't know the power of the wave."

A photo taken at 8:30 a.m. shows a wall of water churning up sand and mud. A final shot a couple of minutes later shows the tsunami hitting the beach.

In all, 12 Canadians were confirmed killed by the tsunami, most of them in Thailand, and 13 people remained unaccounted for as of last week.

[SoxWin]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/photogalleries/j_j_khill_0223/index.html

Couple of extra pics there, I'd be damn scared if I was in one of those boats.

[Blackadar]

I'd be damned scared if I were taking these pictures...that last one is mighty ugly.

[Buccaneer]

My god. I had never seen photos of a tsunami before.

[jbmagic]

i cant believe the couple was taking pictures before they died, when they should be running and moving away from it before it hits the shore

[Eaglesfan27]

Freaky.

[sabotai]

Well, keep in mind the zoom on digital cameras are quite good now. It's possible they were quite a ways from the beach when taking the photos. They just probably didn't realize that they weren't safe enough until it was too late.

[mhass]

Eerie that people are just standing around in the first one. RIP.

[Kodos]

Holy crap! How could you see those big waves in the distance and not run like hell?

From what I've heard, if you are ever near the ocean and notice that the water has receded suddenly - head for high ground because a tidal wave is coming.

[rkmsuf]

Doesn't look that big.

[FrogMan]

Doesn't look that big.
Don't know if you are joking or not, but that was sort of my reaction. Looking at it, it looks so far out, that I'm not so sure I would have had the instinct to head for the high grounds... I guess I've not been close enough to the ocean in my life...

FM

[rkmsuf]

The pictures themselves obviously don't do it justice because it just doesn't look that big in those.

[Ksyrup]

I've never been in anything remotely like that, obviously, but I imagine depth perception plays tricks on you until the very end. Mostly because your brain probably can't comprehend what is coming and it doesn't quite register. Most of the time, those people were probably thinking the wave was going to break and maybe flood up to their shorts or something, but the brain isn't ready for something it can't comprehend, like the idea that the wave you see way out there will be over your head in about a minute.

Until it's too late, that is.

[Ksyrup]

One of the guys I work with is still unwilling to accept these as real until they are verified, so I figured I'd check out snopes to see if anyone asked about them. I didn't find these, but I did find one tsunami-related picture I would have guessed was a fake even without snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/mermaid.asp

[WSUCougar]

The thing that strikes me about the images is that it's not a big, curling monster wave so much as the level of the ocean is significantly higher. As someone who's been around the ocean a lot in my lifetime, that's almost more sinister-looking.

[Blackadar]

The pictures themselves obviously don't do it justice because it just doesn't look that big in those.

It does in that last picture...it looks like a wall of water 20-30 feet high. Anyone who's been whitewater rafting in 4-6 foot waves on a Class V river knows what kind of force that water wall must have had.

[Blackadar]

One of the guys I work with is still unwilling to accept these as real until they are verified, so I figured I'd check out snopes to see if anyone asked about them. I didn't find these, but I did find one tsunami-related picture I would have guessed was a fake even without snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/mermaid.asp

What, CNN isn't good enough?

[rkmsuf]

It does in that last picture...it looks like a wall of water 20-30 feet high. Anyone who's been whitewater rafting in 4-6 foot waves on a Class V river knows what kind of force that water wall must have had.

That wouldn't be me so I'll defer to you.

[Blackadar]

That wouldn't be me so I'll defer to you.

I love whitewater rafting. It's a helluva lot of fun. But when you see a 6 foot curling river wave flip a boat over - with everyone paddling - you realize what kind of power water has. If you've been flipped, you have even a greater appreciation and respect for the water.

Think of it this way. Force = mass x acc.

1 gallon of water = 7 lbs.

Think of the speed and the mass of an ocean of water. Then think about the force.

That kind of wave can pretzel railroad tracks, bend trains, destroy buildings, rip trees from the ground, etc. It certainly will kill people.

[Desnudo]

It does in that last picture...it looks like a wall of water 20-30 feet high. Anyone who's been whitewater rafting in 4-6 foot waves on a Class V river knows what kind of force that water wall must have had.

That looks a hell of a lot higher than 20-30 feet. People surf 20-30 foot waves. It's hard to get perspecive, but before the break, I'd estimate 50-100 at the crest.

I see you were talking about after the break, nm.

[jetpunk2000]

The last couple of pictures definitely show how devastating this thing is. Most of the video's that have been shown, show quickly rising water, but not something that looks deadly. But now, after seeing those pictures, just imagine standing on that beach when that wave hits.

[QuikSand]

1 gallon of water = 7 lbs.

A pint's a pound, the world around. So 8.

Carry on.

[Hurst2112]

Very scary indeed. So is the first picture which appears to show a nude guy walking along the beach.

[Buccaneer]

Just saw the videos of the tsunami on the Diane Sawyer interview. Much more awesome than the pics above (despite the inferior quality). My wife kept commenting on how she expected the waves to be bigger but what you can't see is the power of those waves.