How deep is San Francisco Bay? (Um, spoilers?)

[Candlelight]

Not sure if we need a spoiler warning as it's the shot that's been in all the trailers, but...

When the ship hit the water she was doing a significant speed for a starship, and generated a wave that went nearly as high as the saucer section. Of course then she (somehow) bounced back up and slammed head first into the tall buildings.

Is the bay really deep, or are we to assume she just 'skimmed' the surface?

 

[M'Sharak]

Is the bay really deep, or are we to assume she just 'skimmed' the surface?

San Francisco Bay is not deep at all. It's very shallow.

From here:

The central portion of the San Francisco Bay has an average depth of 43 feet. The northern and southern area has an average depth of 15 to 17 feet. The Bay's deepest point is 360 feet and is located under the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[shapeshifter]

So it was skidding along the bottom, that's fine.

But I still don't see how, given the visuals, the leading edge of the saucer ends up clipping the building tops. That whole sequence didn't really deliver the payoff I was expecting. Just having the mass roll though taking out everything in its path until all momentum bled away would have been better.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

So it was skidding along the bottom, that's fine.

But I still don't see how, given the visuals, the leading edge of the saucer ends up clipping the building tops. That whole sequence didn't really deliver the payoff I was expecting. Just having the mass roll though taking out everything in its path until all momentum bled away would have been better.

More to the point: if we're to believe this ship is the size people claim it is, the secondary hull would hardly be submerged given those depths, let alone the saucer.

 

[shapeshifter]

Well, I personally don't have a horse in the 'ship size' race. They are what they are.

I'm adding my opinion regarding the scene of the Vengeance crashing into SF Bay/shoreline.

 

[Maurice]

I should point of that "the Bay" is actually multiple bays: South Bay, Central Bay, and North Bay, with the latter composed of San Pablo and Suisun Bays. Averaged, these bays are very shallow, but the Central Bay, which starts as the Golden Gate and includes Alcatraz, has the deepest portions. Between the SE end of Alcatraz and North Beach the bay averages between 30 and 20 meters deep, and a ship the size of the Vengeance would span most of the 1 mile between land and island.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

So it was skidding along the bottom, that's fine.

But I still don't see how, given the visuals, the leading edge of the saucer ends up clipping the building tops. That whole sequence didn't really deliver the payoff I was expecting. Just having the mass roll though taking out everything in its path until all momentum bled away would have been better.

More to the point: if we're to believe this ship is the size people claim it is, the secondary hull would hardly be submerged given those depths, let alone the saucer.

Well, that's because the secondary hull was never submerged at any time while the Vengeance was slicing through the water. Nor was the majority of the saucer submerged. Only the front of the saucer was totally submerged, with the rest being covered by waves and spray that the ship kicked up when it crashed.

Here's the water landing from start...



... to finish.



See the silhouette of almost the entire ship behind the wave and spray? That's because it's all above the surface of the water.

The Vengeance is as big as people claim it is. There are clear visual points of comparison several times during the movie (the Enterprise and Vengeance square off directly, the Vengeance deflector takes out Alcatraz, the saucer is several city blocks wide and as tall as the mega skyscrapers of San Fransiscoruscant).