Tsunumi photo hoax

--> THOSE TSUNAMI PHOTOS ARE JUST AMAZING! NOT!
The Web makes for quick distribution of disaster photos. It also
makes for quick circulation of hoaxes.

December's tsunami is a great example. Photos are circulating
purporting to show the waves crashing on fleeing spectators. Others
supposedly show rarely seen deep-sea creatures that were washed up.

Both are hoaxes. The waves crashing over fleeing spectators are from
Chinese river surges called tidal bores. The spectators were there as
part of a tour group. The photos were taken in 2002.

And the deep-sea creatures? They're real enough. They were found during
an Australian-New Zealand research project in 2003.

In both cases, these pictures were already posted on the Internet.
They can be easily copied and dropped into a Web site. The hoaxes
don't appear to do any real harm, other than confusing people.
You can get more information on the photos at:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/creature.asp
http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/tsunami1.asp