Thunderbirds are ... oops

[kengr]

Ok, Thundrebirds has never been strong on science but this time the writers really blew it.

They have a tsunami. Ok, those happen. but they have it endangering ships in mid-ocean!!!

sorry guys but tsunamis are only dangerous when they hit shallow water. In mid-ocean they are just a gentle *very long* swell.

If not, we'd lose hundreds of ships every time one happened.

Also, as anybody who's seen video of one knows, they aren't this huge *breaking* wave. More like a tidal bore.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Depends on the size of it, in proportion to the ocean [disclaimer, I haven't seen that episode yet] but basically, if the Tsunami is big enough, everywhere is shallow water, proportionally.

That said, last time we had one of those was around 65 million years ago...

[stickmaker]

I wonder if the scriptwriter(s) was thinking about rogue waves, which do affect craft on the open ocean.

Anyway, where are you seeing new Thunderbirds episodes?

[stickmaker]

I just want to note that the basic idea of the show makes a lot of sense.

You have a sortie vehicle (in real life, probably something suborbital which can be anywhere on Earth in about ninety minutes) which goes in first to evaluate the situation. It carries basic rescue equipment and a communications center. Those on the sortie vehicle call the details back to base.

There, a fast transport loads the appropriate modular cargo pod and heads out. (What if the particular emergency requires equipment not already loaded in a specific pod? You'd have to mix and match, slowing things. The show should also have had a medical pod, which would have been an entire hospital, complete with personnel. :-)