What Precise Time Did Tsunami Strike?

[The_Moog]

Does anyone know this timing?

The reason I ask is because there is talk that the tsunami had hit Patong in advance of Khao Lak - and taxi drivers were telling each other to head for Khao Lak and not the stricken Patong. (inadventantly leading them into something even worse)

The time differential i've heard would be sufficient to get warnings to Khao Lak beaches. If substantiated, then it has some serious implications.

[lukamar]

Does anyone know this timing?

The time differential i've heard would be sufficient to get warnings to Khao Lak beaches. If substantiated, then it has some serious implications.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you look at a topo map of the seafloor in the two locations you will see that it is shallower much farther out at Khao Lak than at Patong. The wave would defiantly be traveling slower at Khao Lak but at a much greater amplitude (higher). On my map the buildup looks to be about 35Km (approx 21 miles) so mathematically (not scientifically) Khao Lak should have been struck approx. 20 - 30 minutes later.

As for warnings... I do not think that anyone in Patong would have warning Khao Lak or anywhere else for that matter high on their priority list in the first hour.

[The_Moog]

This is the sort of timing differential i'm hearing too.

Allegedly, taxi drivers at the airport were being told to head north to Khao Lak not south because a tsunami had struck - so somebody must presumably have found sufficient time to tell them.

What i'm getting at is - there was initial uncertainty about whether a tsunami would strike at all. and whether the Meterological office should or should not issue a provisional warning.

Yet when it did strike, it didn't strike everywhere at the same time - maybe it took an hour to get from from Satun to Ranong - yet there was still silence.

...Even though by then it was as actual, real wave, not a hypothetical wave.

[Duangta]

I was a the beach when it hit:

10.30 in Khao Lak (Lam Kaen, Thap Lamu)

I called a friend at 10.34 in Khao Lak (Bang Niang). And at that moment the water was already at his front door (one km away from the beach).

Alex

[The_Moog]

On 26.12.04 Tornado and Mr Lob both posted that the wave hit Phuket at 10-ish.

7.59 Quake

9.30 Tsumani: Trang (lets assume that time: conservatively)

10.00 Tsunami: Phuket

10.05 Taxi drivers at Phuket airport alerted

10.30 Tsunami: Khao Lak

11.00 (?) Tsunami: Ranong

The Authorities are saying 'we didn't know it was coming, else we'd have used warning procedures' - ok fine. We forgive them 7.59 am to 9.30 am - but then a real wave did hit.

Its this 1-2 hour period when the tsunami was making its way up the coast - at a fairly leisurely pace, where human error really kicked in.

(None of this brings anyone back, but its an important analytical timeline).

[kat]

And appreciate you doing so, Moog. Please keep us informed of your findings.