Would a tsunami overturn a ship like the QE2?

Question

Would a tsunami overturn a ship like the QE2?

Answer 1

Well when you consider a tsunami has the force of several Atomic bombs, I don't think the QE2 would stand much of a chance.

Answer 2

well duh call 911 and make a cop ***

Answer 3

Much would depend whether the ship was broadside to the oncoming tidal rush, or running with or against the tide.

Most certainly either of the latter would beach the ship because of the force of the running tidal rush.

I was caught in a force10 storm off the Azores, and believe me it was frightening with waves 40 feet running head on to the ship, the Australis, i think 57,000tons. But that experience was in a gradually built up storm. That`s different

Answer 4

Not if the tsunami caught the ship in mid-ocean.  The wave-height of a tsunami in deep water is on the order of 1 meter.  It's wavelength is very long though and the phase velocity is fast, so that 1 m of height represents a huge amount of energy.  A tsunami only builds up to significant heights very near shore, and mainly then very near the epicenter.  

Search youtube or google/video and find video of the Sumatran tsunami a few years ago hitting Phuket and Sri Lanka.  It wasn't this crashing wall of water, it was a huge fast inrush of water like the biggest nastiest tide you ever saw.  However, offshore, probably thousands of boats rode through it without noticing it very much.  

The real danger to ships in mid-ocean are rogue waves.  Those can appear almost out of nowhere.  However, the danger from rogue waves is not so much capsizing a vessel as breaking it in two.