Tsunami Warning for Northern California • Hacker News Board

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#151

Post by lern_too_spel » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 9:28 PM UTC

powersnail wrote: post #142

gamblor956 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the Android give a notification for a tsunami that never happened? Androids also give tsunami warnings, when appropriate. There was 1 issued just a few weeks ago after an off-shore earthquake in SoCal.

My Android did give me a tsunami warning this morning though, but no earthquake warning.

The tsunami warning was in effect all the way down to Santa Cruz. The earthquake alert is sent only if you are expected to experience some particular level of shaking or higher in your location.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#152

Post by unit149 » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 9:41 PM UTC

Mass casualties stemming from a tsunami are predicated on the geographical significations of the region that it is hitting. One instance is the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the havoc it wrought on the coast on much of the coastline of Thailand. There were coastal resorts that managed to avoid damage due to being situated in crescent shaped coves.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#153

Post by colesantiago » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 9:47 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #138

colesantiago wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> earthquake predictions because we can't currently predict earthquakes? and if we can with AGI we would be saving lives?

Let's unpack what you're saying. You seem to believe that AGI would be able to predict something that we have been actively researching for decades. I do not see how AGI would suddenly be able to solve a problem that smart people have already been working on, unless the AGI was also "superintelligent" in ways that contributed. AGI proper is merely artificial intelligence, not necessarily superintelligence. Second, I…

lets pack this altogether.

so you don't believe it would save lives?

prevention is better than a cure and with AGI this would significantly a lot of people, not just SF.

> smart people have already been working on,

If they were so smart why haven't they found it yet? We now have weather prediction and protein folding now solved problems which were extremely difficult problems.

I don't see how this doesn't apply to earthquake prediction, if it has to take AGI to solve it then so be it.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#154

Post by jmward01 » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 9:51 PM UTC

Of course, the elephant in the room here is how does this impact the risk of a Cascadia earthquake. This had to have just added a lot of stress to the southern segment.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#155

Post by hindsightbias » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 9:55 PM UTC

jrnichols wrote: post #118

gbnwl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I didn't see a Tsunami but thanks to this thread I do have a few nice live streams of pleasant water views going. Kind of relaxing tbh.

I loved the days when people could/would set up webcams like this. Just to see outside and share it with others. They're getting so much harder to find. This is quite relaxing, I agree. Here's a couple from Pacifica, CA for you. https://www.pacificaview.net/livecam/

https://www.window-swap.com/Window

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#156

Post by ahi » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 10:07 PM UTC

bagels wrote: post #88

They should really name these like storms/tornados: "warning" means there is actually a tsunami, "watch" means there might be a tsunami. The map showed the warning extending to >1000ft elevation. That is a little over the top.

The problem is that the proper response to a tornado is very different than that of a tsunami. In the case of a tornado, everyone moves to an interior room of a well built structure. A tornado warning means keep on an eye on the sky. In the case of a tsunami, thousands of people may need to evacuate many miles away. Expected landfall of any tsunami was something like 20 minutes after this earthquake so they can't exactly wait until confirmation to get people moving.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#157

Post by johnea » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 10:18 PM UTC

Cancellation The tsunami Warning is canceled for the coastal areas of California and Oregon.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#158

Post by bsder » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 10:37 PM UTC

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #89

cossatot wrote: post #68

Based on the location and focal mechanism of the earthquake ( https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc75095651... ), this is a strike-slip earthquake on the plate boundary between the Pacific and Gorda/Juan de Fuca plates. Strike-slip earthquakes occur when two plates slide beside each other during an earthquake, usually along a steeply-dipping if not vertical fault. These kinds of earthquakes almost neve…

The system is training me to ignore it already. I’m in SF and we had a flash flood emergency alert. I never heard of or saw any floods. I could believe a street or two might have had a few inches of water at most. But honestly I’d bet against even that. And then there’s this tsunami alert today.

Flash flood alerts are one of the few that I don't get annoyed about seeing. A big rain up in the mountains can result in a huge chunk of water somewhere downstream a couple of hours later. This significant displacement of time and space between cause and effect warrants caution and notification.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#159

Post by Bratmon » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 10:46 PM UTC

numpad0 wrote: post #124

Rebelgecko wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wireless emergency alerts (like what you see for amber alerts) that go over cell towers have pretty high latency (IIRC on the order of a minute or two for the alert to disseminate). The native Android earthquake alerts are much faster

Carrier alerts is the fastest. Not only the whole process from detecting tremors to alerts take 30 seconds or so, there aren't other data sources than what those carriers use anyway, so there's just no way Google can be faster than carriers. PWS is also a broadcast, meaning the phones don't have to wait for cellular timeslots, so it's faster and bandwidth efficient in that regard too.

Android alerts got there way before carrier alerts today.

Reality doesn't care what you think should be the fastest.

Re: Tsunami Warning for Northern California

#160

Post by danenania » Thu, Dec 05, 2024, 10:46 PM UTC

jrnichols wrote: post #118

gbnwl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I didn't see a Tsunami but thanks to this thread I do have a few nice live streams of pleasant water views going. Kind of relaxing tbh.

I loved the days when people could/would set up webcams like this. Just to see outside and share it with others. They're getting so much harder to find. This is quite relaxing, I agree. Here's a couple from Pacifica, CA for you. https://www.pacificaview.net/livecam/

surfline.com has them all over the world, but you have to pay $9/mo to watch them (I have a sub for surfing info). They have a 24h rewind feature which is pretty cool. People use it sometimes for video of themselves surfing, but I guess it would also be useful for random events like tsunamis.

On that note, I checked feeds at both Ocean Beach and Linda Mar at the predicted time but didn't see anything unusual, except that they apparently made all the surfers get out (first time I've ever seen Linda Mar empty of surfers during daylight hours apart from big storms/flat spells). OB had a bunch of spectators lined up on the dunes... an interesting reaction to a tsunami warning is "let's go to the beach and watch!".