Palm trees in morning light at Refugio State Beach, California, March 11, 2011. On this morning a park official was stopping by all campsites to inform everyone that a major earthquake had occurred in Japan, and a tsunami could be arriving on this beach within an hour or two. I considered the tsunami footage I had seen in recent years, and positioned myself with two cameras at the base of a bluff which I could run up if/when such a wave arrived.

Apparently tsunamis are difficult to predict because they interact with the geography of the local sea floor (and that can vary with the force and direction of the incoming wave). On the California coast waves were apparently seen entering Morro Bay and in Crescent City.

Palm trees in morning light at Refugio State Beach, California, March 11, 2011. On this morning a park official was stopping by all campsites to inform everyone that a major earthquake had occurred in Japan, and a tsunami could be arriving on this beach within an hour or two. I considered the tsunami footage I had seen in recent years, and positioned myself with two cameras at the base of a bluff which I could run up if/when such a wave arrived.

Apparently tsunamis are difficult to predict because they interact with the geography of the local sea floor (and that can vary with the force and direction of the incoming wave). On the California coast waves were apparently seen entering Morro Bay and in Crescent City.