Kyle what's the order of difference between points on the earthquake scale? There was a 9.0 in 1960 in Chile that caused a tsunami to hit Hawaii, yet an 8.8 didn't seem to do much.
Nite wiki'd the answer. Each one full step up the scale is a ten-fold increase in intensity. In other words, intensity is proportional to 10^(Magnitude).
As for why there wasn't a 3'-6' sea-level rise in Hilo, Hawaii as expected, I don't even think the experts can tell you exactly why yet. Tsunamis are rare, so there hasn't been much field data about them. The math that describes tsunamis (and waves in general) are accurate for speed and somewhat accurate for amplitude and wave attenuation, but real life never follows the models. Thus, they got the arrival time right within a few minutes, but not the amplitude or sea-level rise.
Yes. It has to do with whether they move vertically or horizontally along a fault during an earthquake.
To visualize it, take a large bowl of water (plastic if possible) and first shake it (horizontal movement). Then, if you can, push the bottom up at a small point or drop something small but heavy (like a pebble) into it (vertical movement). The response of the water in the bowl simulates what the ocean does in response to an underwater earthquake.
You can make the experiment more accurate if you can put a sloped object at the edge of the bowl (that reaches to the bottom of the bowl).
If you do this correctly, the shaking should produce a sloshing effect while the pushing/dropping should produce a series of circular waves that radiate from the point of the disturbance. At your slope, these waves should decrease in speed and increase in amplitude.
I just went for a run around my neighborhood (due to the PSN being offline), and the beach up here looks like it got hit with some higher than normal waves, but nothing catastrophic. The sand for 50 meters from the waterline is all leveled and smooth and wet.
But that all could be from the rainstorms we just had.
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General Yib-Yab (Off Topic) 
Re: Earthquake in Chile. 
Linear Mode
