Thanks for the link. Everyone travelling to a seacoast should have basic
info about what to and signs to watch for re tsunamis.

On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 07:33, Harveyat8c43z0 posted to
rec.radio.shortwave: %MM

. Then again, all the video footage I've seen on
American TV shows the ocean gently lapping on the beach, then suddenly a
huge wave comes out of nowhere and washes over everything.

Tsunami are seismicly generated, very low, and very long; the wave period
is in the 1,000 second range,
instead of 10 -20 seconds like normal sea swells.
-So, in a Tsunami, the sea level receded very Slowly, leaving the normal
wave action on top. Perceived Sea level drops.
Then the wave front of the Tsunami comes in, and the water goes in the
reverse ( inland direction )
for an equal duration.

if you go HERE

http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html

- and look for the sri lanka video taken from a hotel over a swimming
pool, looking oout to sea, you can see the wave coming in.

- Probably the reason everyone had their video cameras ready was because,
for ten minutes prior to that,
The " Sea" had been " going out"