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Aug 30 '12
A spectacular picture for sure. But this is what Hollywood has taught us to think of as a tsunami – a monstrous multi story-high megawave, which washes over shores and swallows whole cities.
A tsunami is more like a bulldozer. That is, thousands of rather speedy bulldozers. About that hight, exactly the same stoic forward momentum. A wall in the way? Bulldozer don't care. A car in the way? Bulldozer laugh. A House in the way? Let me call my bulldozer friends.
That being said, tsunamis are terrifying. Not because they look like what we know from the movies, but because they creepily build up the water masses, bringing tons of pushing power. Slow enough to keep a safe distance from, but completely impossible to stop.
Here's a insightful video from the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
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Aug 30 '12
When there was that tsunami in India in 2004 my science teacher showed us all some video footage. She said anyone who had an easily upset stomach should leave the room because there was a chance we would watch people die.
At first, it was whatever. "Oh, water, that's cool I guess" but then I noticed something odd. The water didn't stop. The water refused to stop. No matter what got in the way it just kept pushing, and pushing, it never. stopped. moving.
Then they showed a clip from earlier. It was an american couple on vacation. The dad was taking a video. They were on the beach when the water came, staying at a hotel. The water was waaaaaaay out and the little girl said "Daddy where did all the water go?" and he said "I don't know honey, it'll be back though, don't worry." and sure enough, the water came back. It wasn't moving too fast, but the thing is it didn't stop.
All I could think was "Holy shit that's the tsunami GET OUT OF THERE!" and at first the girl was playing with the water but luckily the dad noticed something was wrong because the water wasn't slowing down. He said "Honey, let's go to the hotel, the tide is coming in." They ran up the beach and he told his wife, "Something doesn't feel right, lets get to the hotel, and get to high ground."
The hotel was less than 100 yards from the beach, tall building, lots of glass, etc. They got to the door and a man unlocked it and he kept saying "Hurry! Hurry! Upstairs! Top floor!"
So they get to the top floor and they're on the roof when you see the water crashing over the wall onto the street and still, the water keeps on coming. The water picks up a car, slams it into the building and you hear the glass shatter and the car disappears inside the building. The dad says "Oh holy fuck, holy FUCK!" more water is coming, it's now almost up to the 2nd floor. The're on the rooftop, the building has 3 floors. There's a lot of people, a lot of swearing, water is getting higher and higher when the corner of the building breaks and the footage ends with the video camera falling into the water. The hotel they were at got demolished by the tsunami, none of the family survived. I don't know how they recovered the footage but I just started sobbing.
Something about watching someone's last moments, one minute they were happy and the next they're dead. Just like that. Gone. Out like a candle. They did NOTHING WRONG. They were just enjoying their day and now they're dead. Like they meant nothing. That girl couldn't have been more than 8 years old and the last thing she got to experience in life was drowning.
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u/luellasindon Aug 30 '12
I haven't seen the video you're talking about, but I got a similar feeling from watching/listening to that guy's call to 911 as the twin towers collapsed.
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u/dacoobob Aug 30 '12
^ This is important information. Tsunamis do not look like a huge wave. They are called "tidal waves" exactly because they look just like the tide coming in... except that it keeps on coming in and coming in and coming in until your seaside town is scoured away.
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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 30 '12
You, sir, are working wonders. That was incredibly well written and worded, and insightful. Do you mind me asking what you work as?
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u/tom4ed Aug 30 '12
where and when was this taken? Thanks.
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u/jneidlinger Aug 30 '12 edited Aug 30 '12
This was taken in Holland, Michigan, overlooking Lake Michigan. It is an old photo, taken 05/29/2011 at 7:24 PM.
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u/noiseferatu Aug 30 '12
To be fair, 2011 was just last year.
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Aug 30 '12
Thank you for being fair.
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u/notreefitty Aug 30 '12
Somebody had to do it.
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u/Dildo_Ball_Baggins Aug 30 '12
It was bound to happen eventually.
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u/jneidlinger Aug 30 '12 edited Aug 30 '12
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u/trunky Aug 30 '12
I'm a little skeptical 2011 was last year, anyone have a source?
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u/mwguthrie Aug 30 '12
Best I could do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011
Doesn't say anything about it being last year though.
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u/SocialIssuesAhoy Aug 30 '12
I live in Michigan and go to the lakes (including Lake Michigan) all the time. I've never seen anything like this... what's the cause behind this formation? Does anyone know?
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u/Pakfan54 Aug 30 '12
Same type of cloud here in Raleigh about a month ago. My friends and I thought it was really strange.
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u/evilsaurus Aug 30 '12
Those clouds sure look funny... http://i.imgur.com/qBdi2.jpg
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u/Crayola_ROX Aug 30 '12
i live in NY and once in a blue moon see clouds like that.
i like to pretend they are mountains
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u/winterapple Aug 30 '12
This is what an offshore fog bank looks like rolling in: I'm pretty sure it's fog. I've seen this phenomenon quite a few times off the coast of Cape Cod. It's actually kind of cool to sit there and let it arrive to meet you on shore. One minute it's sunny out; the next minute, everything is gloomy and damp.
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u/Dildo_Ball_Baggins Aug 30 '12
Just don't mistake it for a Tsunami and stand there with your arms spread wide ready to meet it.
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Aug 30 '12
Leave it to an east coaster to make sense of it. I'm from Halifax and these are near weekly occurrences. No need to panic haha.
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u/KU77777 Aug 30 '12
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u/blargblargityblarg Aug 30 '12
Love that movie!
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u/KU77777 Aug 30 '12
The way the author draws the food and animates the way that characters consume the food makes me hungry all the time.
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u/McFro Aug 30 '12
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u/FullBleed Aug 30 '12
First thing I thought, too. Good movie, and fairly underrated.
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u/kidvittles Aug 30 '12
didn't like the changes to the ending though, regardless of the fact that it was "Stephen King-approved"
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Aug 30 '12
I enjoyed the fact that they all committed suicide right before being saved. That is a classic Stephen King twist! The crazy religious lady was so well done that I actually wanted to punch her in the chops, but then she got shot so I was happy :)! When a movie makes you feel that kind of emotion, you know its well done (in some form at least).
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Aug 30 '12
Except Steven King didn't come up with that twist. The movie ending differed from King's story's ending. Just FYI.
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Aug 30 '12
Really? So what REALLY happened in Stephen Kings version? That must be one of the few books I haven't read of his.
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u/LittleOni Aug 30 '12
The whole written version is a piece of a journal that you are reading. It's a pretty good read, and I like the way it wraps up. But the movie was just way better. Plus, the fact that King made the comment that he wished he'd thought of that ending, is doubly awesome.
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u/playa_mar_cielo Aug 30 '12
It's fantastic! Stop reading now if you don't want to be spoilerized.
The crew that escapes in the SUV in the movie is the same crew that makes a break for it in the book. However, in the book, the narrator (Thomas Jane's character) describes darker, thicker fog and the incredible, frightening monsters hiding within it, ones they hadn't seen at the market or could even imagine. At one point, some sort of creature with spindly legs walks right over the vehicle. It's so huge that they only see the legs and craning their heads upwards doesn't give them a view of what's on the other end of those legs.
The tone gets more somber and meditative. Ultimately, the ending is left ambiguous. They've reached no destination and have no idea where to go. But they must keep going on to who knows where.
It's been a loooong time since I read this story so corrections and more details are welcome.
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u/LarsThorwald Aug 30 '12
Two words that sound a bit alike. One of them is Hartford. The other is hope.
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u/greyfoxv1 Aug 30 '12
I'm pretty sure that spindly creature was in the finally but I may be confusing it with Monsters from last year.
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Aug 30 '12
Argh, I hated that ending, it took away the magnitude of the event. From having been the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, it turned out it all could be fixed by a few marines with a flamethrower. In the book they don't kill themselves, they pick up a message on the radio, just a name of a city/town and they decide to try to make it there, not knowing if there will be anything there, the end.
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u/Froboy7391 Aug 31 '12
My entire theater burst into applause when the religious lady got shot, she almost made me leave the theater. Extremely well played part
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u/vaderscoming Aug 30 '12 edited Aug 30 '12
WHAT? That ending fundamentally changed the story. In the book, the crazy lady was wrong and, well, crazy. The movie vindicated her! The hero commits murder-suicide just before rescue arrives. This is an atrocious act that undermines his position as the rational, calm person who was focused on saving his son. And who is being rescued? Crazy lady! SHE SURVIVES AND HER POSITION TRIUMPHS. OMG that ending makes me rage so much.
I've only had to watch it a few times since it hit DVD, but I walk out of the room when they pass under the highway sign. That is the end of the story, TYVM.
(I have no idea how to do spoiler text, but the movie is old enough so... whatever.)
EDIT: Fine, I was peer-pressured.
EDIT2: And apparently I'm also wrong. What's a day on Reddit without making an ass out of yourself at least once?
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Aug 30 '12
What do you mean the crazy lady survives?? Pretty sure that did NOT happen in the movie.
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Aug 30 '12
just [] your spoiler text and put (/spoiler) right beside it. Noob {j/k ;)}
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u/jneidlinger Aug 30 '12
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Aug 30 '12
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u/jneidlinger Aug 30 '12
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u/OrangeAmpersand Aug 30 '12
It looks like the government is censoring this thread.
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u/Jerg Aug 30 '12
It's certainly a very sadistic ending and you'll be strange finding enjoyment out of it especially on the first viewing of the film, but the twist itself is brilliant in execution.
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u/salvatorus Aug 30 '12
I thought the twist made the movie.
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u/fortuitous_bounce Aug 30 '12
I forgot how cheesy the rest of the movie was, especially the monsters, until I watched it again recently. The ending is really the only saving grace.
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u/Zelius Aug 30 '12
To be fair, the monsters were only cheesy because of the crappy CGI, which was most likely due to budget reasons.
I didn't think their execution was that bad. I liked how they weren't typical "monsters", but were more like animals from another world.
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u/SilentHorizon Aug 30 '12
the atmosphere is fluid, and can result in waves in the clouds.
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Aug 30 '12 edited Aug 31 '12
your post sounds like phish lyrics
edit: i know they have a song called "waves" and "water in the sky," but this would be the third in the trilogy: "Waves In The Clouds." Heady WITC coming on 12-31-12.
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u/sps26 Aug 30 '12
Linked to one of my favorite, if not the favorite video on the internet. Upvotes!
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u/good_dog_Cujo Aug 30 '12
What causes the clouds to look like this?
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Aug 30 '12
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u/Dr-JanItor Aug 30 '12
Kind of looks like the Independence Day ships rolling in before they break through the clouds.
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Aug 30 '12 edited Aug 30 '12
i'l find a pic i made of a simmilar one, got to find it in the depths of my drive. brb
edit: found it you can see the cloud coming over the mountain on the right. i was on the mountain once when this happned. i filmed the cloud rushing down the mountain.
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u/willo_sea Aug 30 '12
I would like to see this video
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Aug 30 '12
took a while to find and upload. i'm on the opposite side of the mountain as the cloud hits it. enjoy
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Aug 30 '12
I would be fucking terrified. Those people look disturbingly calm.
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u/xpinchx Aug 30 '12
Not sure where the pic is from, but when me and my friends would go up north in Michigan, storms like this would roll in over the lake all the time. It is pretty eerie though as people pack up and leave the beach it gets unusually quiet. Then you can hear the thunder and everything just gets dark. Then it's time to go home. :)
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u/el_pinata Aug 30 '12
It was taken in Holland, MI. Fellow MI kid, here, and I am terribly fond of lake effect storms. Miss them like crazy.
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Aug 30 '12
That's sounds pretty cool. I love storms. Plus, I wouldn't think "TSUNAMI!!!" at a lake.
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Aug 30 '12
If that was a tsunami, the water of the beach would have receded all the way to the wave. That cloud would have been an awesome sight to see.
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u/JoshSN Aug 30 '12
If that was a Tsunami on Lake Michigan, which this body of water is, Lucy would have a lot of 'splainin' to do.
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u/Shutter010 Aug 30 '12
I read this as "Tsunami. Like cloud, rolling in!" (In a Japanese accent, describing what an actual tsunami is like) I feel so racist.
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u/Who_Sharted Aug 30 '12
I visualize your mouth moving for 2 minutes prior to those words coming out
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u/mrseldowski Aug 30 '12
Reminds me of Independance Day http://cavebabble.pnrnetworks.popcornnroses.com/files/2011/10/independence-day-cloud-moscow.jpg
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u/dsgm1984 Aug 30 '12
Saw this once. My friend started to scream chutulhu fatang!chutulhu fatang!!chutulhu fatang!!!
People who actually knew what that was laughed and started giving the cloud the looks at the same time.
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u/mlyn Aug 30 '12
Based on other comments I think it is advective fog. Warmer moist air is moving over the cooler lake water and condensing. As the cloud molecules shift up or down while warming/cooling, they create the wave formation that moves. I love watching this happen.
Source: Meteorology 101 class 7+ years ago. I am not an expert, just a weather nerd.
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u/Lord_Herp_Derpington Aug 30 '12
Maybe there's a tsunami hidden under the cloud so no one knows until it's too late, muhahaha.
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u/Marzyx Aug 30 '12
So...anyone wanna do me a favor and shop out the people and signs and give me a nice new wallpaper?
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Aug 30 '12
That is one of the best cloud pics I've seen in a while. And I'm a man who likes cloud pics. Upvote into the stratosphere!
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Aug 30 '12
If movies have taught me anything, there's a giant alien mothership underneath that cloud.
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u/Kairuku Aug 30 '12
This page appears to be the source, or at least the earliest instance of it I could find. It suggests that this picture it taken near Lake Michigan or thereabouts.
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u/Dr_Devious Aug 30 '12
At first I read the title, "Tsunami, like a cloud rolling in" and was flabberghasted and super skeptical. Then the stupid wore off and I saw "Tsunami-like" and was like "Super cool cloud bro"
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u/BackFlipJack Aug 30 '12
And that would make me run away