Hilmar,

The wave out in the open ocean is only about 1 foot tall. The only really detectable thing was the initiating seismic event.

>I was wondering - the tsunami was said to advance at a speed of ca. 500 km/h. Wouldn't that give enough time to warn people in coastal regions to move to higher areas? I think it should be possible to observe such a monster from sattelites or something - or perhaps suspect that something might happen, as soon as the earthquake is detected.