Answers to listener questions about who’s on board

A listener wrote in to ask about who’s on board the ships we see in the Astoria Anchorage in the river, and whether they can come ashore while they’re here in the U.S.

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More about how the Tonga volcano rang the Earth’s atmosphere like a bell

Some followup on yesterday’s report where we discussed the Tonga volcanic eruption, and how in addition to creating tsunami waves in the water, created corresponding waves in the air.

Photo credit: Nick-D, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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Atmospheric shock wave from Tonga matched tsunamis

Another look at Tonga’s volcanic eruption, which not only caused tsunamis across the Pacific, but also sent huge airborne shockwaves through the atmosphere, traveling at about the same speed.

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Chinese New Year set to further slow global shipping

It’s an annual event that the shipping industry prepares for: The cessation of activity in Chinese ports for about a month during the celebration of Chinese or Lunar New Year. This year with the pandemic still wreaking havoc on global markets, it could hardly come at a worse time.

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Ships come to the aid of Tonga

For a small island nation like Tonga, ships are life savers in a disaster. In fact ships are lifesavers areound the world. Today we talk about how ships save the day when things go wrong.

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Man swept out to sea by Tonga tsunami lives

A miraculous story of survival in the waters off Tonga, where a man was swept out to sea and lived to tell the sea, after 27 hours.

Photo: Landsat 8 (NASA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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What happened in Tonga?

A closer look at what happened in Tonga, and how a volcanic eruption could be violent enough to send a tsunami worthy shockwave across the Pacific.

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The days are truly getting longer

Let’s talk about something happy today, like…. the days are getting longer!

We’ll talk about what this means for brighter days ahead, and also a bit about why days are just getting longer, little by little, over the centuries.

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Tsunami Advisory on US West Coast

Well, as if we haven’t had enough going on lately (snow, intense rain, snow melt, flooding, highway collapse…) this weekend we had a tsunami advisory caused by a volcanic eruption in Tonga, almost 6,000 miles away. We’ll talk about how tsunamis work and how this one got here so fast – in about 12 hours. That’s about how long a non-stop flight would take in a jet airplane.

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The Triumph-Mermaid Tragedy, Part 2

Today we conclude our tribute to the crew of the USCG motor lifeboat Triumph and her crew, and the two crewmembers aboard the fishing vessel Mermaid, as we continue the story of the Triumph disaster, the most tragic incident in the history of the Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest.

Part 2 today recounts the incredible efforts by Coast Guard personnel to save the Mermaid and the amazing survival of one crewmember of the Triumph, who lived through being thrown into storm tossed seas as the boat disappeared beneath the waves.

A reminder that despite comprehensive lifesaving training and valiant effort, we do indeed live in the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” a place where the weather and the sea have the last word.

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