What happens if there is an earthquake while on a cruise ship?

While it's possible that a ship can feel the impacts of an earthquake, it's extremely rare that damage would occur, according to Dr. Thomas Heaton, seismologist and professor of geophysics and civil engineering at the California Institute of Technology.



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When a great earthquake ruptures, the faulting can cause vertical slip that is large enough to disturb the overlying ocean, thus generating a tsunami that will travel outwards in all directions.

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The only way that a cruise ship would be able to be flipped over is if it took the wave hit perpendicular on the port or starboard side, along the beam. Most of the time, ships will aim to hit a wave bow-first.

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If you wonder whether cruise ships have jails, the answer is yes. Jails are called brigs on a cruise ship and tend only to be used in serious circumstances when no other options are available. Cabin arrest is typically used before the brig is needed.

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—Typical size of tsunami waves in the deep ocean. Ships at sea may not even notice tsunami waves as they pass beneath their hulls.

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A rogue wave could sink a ship, although most modern cruise ships are big enough to withstand the majority of smaller rogue waves, though not without damage. Smaller ships are more at risk, but they are also more manoeuvrable so would stand a higher chance of being able to navigate out of the wave's path.

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The survival rate after jumping off a cruise ship is around 25%. Many things can influence this rate including the speed of the ship, the location, the time of day and the season. A case of someone surviving their ordeal is taken from 2015 when a 22-year-old man fell overboard off the coast of Mexico.

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How many people are rescued after falling off a cruise ship? Of the 212 listed as overboard between 2009 and 2019, only 48 people were rescued.

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While generally, a cruise ship will continue on to its destination if poor weather conditions can be avoided, there are sometimes exceptions. A modern cruise ship is equipped with stabilizing technology for when it encounters rough seas. However, if the storm is more serious, the ship may attempt to avoid or outrun it.

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This movement is largely due to the friction of the water upon the sides of the ship. The layers of water in immediate contact with the hull tend to cling to it, and are dragged along with increasing velocity, until at the stern of a long ship they are traveling approximately at the same speed as the vessel.

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Taking a seven-day cruise is more than three times as carbon-intensive as flying and staying abroad.

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“The truth is that the newer, bigger ships are as safe or safer than any comparable smaller ships,” he said. The Concordia, operated by a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation , was carrying 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew when disaster struck.

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In such cases, cruise lines have two options: head to a different port up or down the coast to disembark passengers or remain at sea until the ship's home port reopens.

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If a storm is threatening the area a ship was scheduled to sail to, cruise lines will reroute the ships if the forecast is severe enough. While cruise ships can typically outrun most storms, passengers may still experience rough seas as their ship skirts the edges of a weather system.

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