Cruise ships actually tend to fare better at sea or otherwise offshore compared to staying moored in port when an active tsunami threat is headed ashore.
In 2004, a strong earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a massive tsunami that left over 200,000 people dead and billions of dollars in material devastation. In what appears to be a similar ominous repeat, an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude recorded near the Russian coastline has triggered tsunami warnings across the U.S. West Coast, Japan, and Hawaii. In the wake of the alerts, panic has ensued among people aboard cruise ships and those waiting to embark on a cruise journey.
Now, a tsunami is a catastrophic event, so one must naturally think that staying away from the ocean, and more importantly, any vessel floating on the ocean, is the safest course of action. Science, however, suggests that the best option is to stay put in deep waters and far away from coastal areas. Accordingly, in the wake of the advisory issued by the National Weather Service, numerous cruise ships were ordered to depart their docking ports in Alaska, Hawaii, and the West Coast region.
