Arney & Rich

Appreciate the comments. That was one of the things I learned from the Japanese disaster today - that the tsunami can be a series of waves. The first wave is not necessarily the largest. That will be important to keep in mind. I was also watching the footage of the tsunami going through Iwanuma. Very hard to avoid a wall of water that's as huge as that - esp. when it is flowing across flat land. If you find any longer TV footage of that wave, please post a link.

Rich - apparently your knowledge of liquefaction is greater than mine. I thought it only operated on a local scale, for buildings built on sandy soils. You seem to be saying that it can affect whole geological regions. Hope you will explain more when you can.

And by the way - we've got three major oil refineries within about 6 miles of my home (El Segundo Chevron refinery, the Torrance refinery, and the big refinery near Signal Hill beside Long Beach). Based on the Japanese footage, it's a good bet that these refineries could be on fire after a quake like that.

other Pete