The Mokapu Point buoy displaying swell direction oscillation during the Hawaii tsunami
In today’s Star Bulletin, Erika Engle discusses the role of social media during Saturday’s tsunami, including a mention of Buoy Alarm, which was flooded with Twitter traffic yesterday after people discovered the Mokapu Point buoy twitter feed (@buoy51202).
While NOAA utilizes a completely different system to monitor tsunami activitiy (DART), the effects of the surge’s ebb and flow were noticeable at the Mokapu surface buoy, mainly in the oscillating swell direction between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. HST. I suppose many chose to follow the buoy on Twitter expecting to see a dramatic spike in wave height, but when you consider the tremendous volume of water in the Pacific, to have it shift direction 9 times in approximately 5 hours is actually quite remarkable, and requires an amazing amount of energy. [Continue...]
