Nelson
Data kindly supplied by Port Nelson Ltd
| Time of arrival of first wave* | 23.1 h |
| Time of arrival of highest wave* | 51.6 h |
| Height of the highest wave | 644 mm |
| Period of the highest wave | 45 min |
* hours after the earthquake.
Commentary
Nelson typically has very small meteorologically-generated long waves, so any waves observed here are likely to be tsunami waves. Thus, we can surmise that the few, large, long-period waves on 30 December were also tsunami waves.
Figure 1. Sumatra tsunami at Nelson showing:
A. long wave record;
B. height of each wave; and
C. period of each wave.
EQ denotes the time of the earthquake (12:59 on 26 December 2004, NZST),
TOA denotes time of arrival of first waves.
Figure 2. Sumatra tsunami at Nelson showing:
A. long wave record;
B. significant (red) and maximum (blue) wave heights;
C. period of significant waves; and
D. distribution of significant wave height with time and period.
EQ denotes the time of the earthquake (12:59 on 26 December 2004, NZST).
How were these calculated?
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