Did you hear about the Alaska Tsunami warning?

Imagine if you had been cruising when the tsunami warning came on! I was about to tell you about cruise #3 which was to Alaska but I decided I wanted to know more about the tsunami and earthquake in the Gulf of Alaska. How do these events affect a cruise ship?

Earthquake under the Sea

Its pretty interesting. If you are on a boat and there’s an earthquake near you, you won’t even notice it. Imagine a cork in a bowl of water. Tip the bowl and the cork won’t move. Same idea but the ship is the cork and the bowl the ocean. If you are tied up in port your experience might be a little different. The dock will be affected because it’s connected to the land. Since the ship is tied to the dock tie lines may jerk and the ship may bump into the pier. All that energy is being transferred to the ship.

But What about a Tsunami?

Those are pretty big waves. It would seem that they would affect the ship. Remember the movie “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972 & 2005)? That is not what is going to happen. At least not if you are out at sea. If you are on a cruise ship in the ocean you might not even notice the Tsunami! Much like the cork above, your ship will probably just ride over it.

The Shock Wave that is a Tsunami

Tsunamis can travel at speeds of 500 mph in the open sea but it isn’t a wall of  water. It’s not until it hits shallow water in a harbor or along a coast that it is compressed into a big wave. Stay away from land and you should be good. Experts say that large cruise ships probably won’t be affected even when docked because they need at least 30 ft of water which is still considered fairly deep.

Alaska’s Alert

Although everyone was evacuated from the low lying coastal areas near Kodiak, the tsunami never materialized. By 7:30 EST the alerts and warnings along the west coast were being canceled. That’s good news for all!