This was taken by one of our dive instructors who was luckily rock climbing. Sorry its large!
Wow…you can tell the power of the at-first seemingly benign wave(s) by the amount of foam behind each one…and by how immense the wave in the upper part of the picture is—it looks like it’s miles wide. Simply amazing.
This is the first round of 4 waves that started the Tsunami, the next round was 1 huge, double these, wave followed by another set like this one.
He has some incredible images and has been offered crazy money for them so not sure how many he will let me publish.
I have trouble understanding how that could be so devestating. Maybe I’ve seen too much Hollywood sensationalism or something, it just doesn’t look like a big deal. Beautiful place.
Look at how long (or wide) the wave in the upper portion of the picture is. It has to be two miles long…when’s the last time you saw a wave wider than a few hundred yards? And all that foam behind the waves…only very powerful waves tend to have that kind of foam… You’re right, on the surface not much looks to be going on…but look closer—see the upper portion of the cove where the wave closest to the camera is breaking on that shore—looks pretty damn powerful.
Does anyone know if there are any incredible picturesof the waves? I have been searching with no success.
Its not the height of the wave, its the volume of water behind it. They should stop calling these things tidal waves and call them tidal surges.
Stunning photograph.
That is a stunning picture. Your friend deserves much credit for taking it - not only for coincidence of being on that cliff at that precise moment but also for having the coolness and the skill to capture what was in the process of happening. Thanks for posting it.
Brian
I heard rumours that there were 2 waves - each 95 feet heigh. True? Pictures?
I have heard reports that the largest wave/surge was not higher than 10 metres, the waves that hit Krabi, above, we partly sheltered by Phi Phi Iland group further out.
It is true they are not waves but huge surges of water more like a wall, the height if the water behind the frontal wave is nearly the same height as the breaker which is nothing like a normal wave.
The height of the wave would be different at each location it hit…
I saw some TV footage of some pretty big waves, but not 95 feet
Wow - awesome pic. Not sure if this helps, but this is from the same spot with a different angle/zoom. Railay is a truly amazing place - your friend is very fortunate.
Jason==this just takes me to the site to upload a picture.
Tri-espana–Didn’t you get all over somebody this week for posting a before and after picture?
Forget about pictures and stop trying to rationalize everything you hear and see. CNN will only show you what makes headlines and is inside their content rating.
You can NEVER put into perspective death on this skale. Dont even try to imagine what it is like, you cant, you fool yourself into believing you know and understand what these people went through but in reality you know fuck all.
Instead of spending your time finding pictures about the effected areas how about just sending money to help the real victims!
Now you post a picture!
A couple of days ago a Swiss newspaper began collecting the amateur videos that were going around and posted a link to them on their webpage.
www.video.20min.ch
Ther are different mirrors for the videos - left click and save them, it’s quicker. Some sites are faster than others. They are really amazing. You really do see the power these things have.
I haven’t seen any pictures though.
Some of the commentary that I have heard:
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The waves did look somewhat benign as they approached the shore, but then really built up height and speed( thus power) when they reached the shallow water
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The difference versus big wind driven surf or other storm surges is that they kept going further and further inland in some cases 2 - 3 kilometers.
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Much of the destruction was from the water running back out/off from the land
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In some places the clue to this was something different was when the first wave(s) went back out, they kept going way back out exposing ocean floor for 800 - 900 feet out from the normal shore break. Many were drawn to the beaches to witness this. Many of these same people were killed when a subsequent much bigger wave swept into shore.
Fleck
I agree that the photo does not really convey the power behind the water. To offer some perspective, when hurricane Juan hit Nova Scotia in 2003 a storm surge of about 5 feet above normal high tide hit my property. A hurricane storm surge is obviously different from a tsunami (slower speed, less force, etc.). I had a wooden retaining crib built with telephone poles and filled with rocks. The surge lifted the crib and sucked it away. My neighbor’s wharf (built with telephone poles and railway ties and filled with boulders) was lifted and twisted and the deck was stripped off. On a small island close by the surge knocked over some large spruce trees and carved a cliff into the island. Imagine a 10 meter or higher wall of water moving much faster - pretty scary stuff.
I spent a week at Railay/Phra Nang beaches in 1995. Truely a tropical paridise. Rented a nice little beach hut for about $10/night! I went on a great run/swim around the headland in the distance of the photo and then up into a jungle trail on the far side. A very memorable run.
Because of the location, I suspect that the impact of the waves was not as great here - these beaches would have been in the shadow of the waves that struck Phuket and Pi Pi islands that would have had the full brunt of the Tsunami.
It is not a during and after picture and I didn’t reference it to any rationalization or reason to understand.
It is an amazing picture that shows the first waves coming in from a position I doubt you will find anywhere else.