Safety first for tsunamis

Safety first for tsunamis
(How are tsunamis formed)
If you are on land:
Tsunamis generated in distant locations will generally give people enough time to move to higher ground. For locally-generated tsunamis, where you might feel the ground shake, you may only have a few minutes to move to higher ground.
Offshore reefs and shallow areas may help break the force of tsunami waves, but large and dangerous wave can still be a threat to coastal residents in these areas. Staying away from all low-lying areas is the safest advice when there is a tsunami warning.
How are tsunamis formed




How are tsunamis formed...

Physical Characteristics of Tsunamis

Physical Characteristics of Tsunamis

All types of waves, including tsunamis, have a wavelength, a wave height, an amplitude, a frequency or period, and a velocity.

Wavelength is defined as the distance between two identical points on a wave (i.e. between wave crests or wave troughs). Normal ocean waves have wavelengths of about 100 meters. Tsunamis have much longer wavelengths, usually measured in kilometers and up to 200 kilometers

* Wave height refers to the distance between the trough of the wave and the crest or peak of the wave.
* Wave amplitude- refers to the height of the wave above the still water line, usually this is equal to 1/2 the wave height. Tsunamis can have variable wave height and amplitude that depends on water depth as we shall see in a moment
* Wave frequency or period - is the amount of time it takes for one full wavelength to pass a stationary point.
* Wave velocity is the speed of the wave. Velocities of normal ocean waves are about 90 km/hr while tsunamis have velocities up to 950 km/hr (about as fast as jet airplanes), and thus move much more rapidly across ocean basins. The velocity of any wave is equal to the wavelength divided by the wave period.

V = l/P

Tsunamis are characterized as shallow-water waves. These are different from the waves most of us have observed on a the beach, which are caused by the wind blowing across the ocean's surface. Wind-generated waves usually have period (time between two successive waves) of five to twenty seconds and a wavelength of 100 to 200 meters. A tsunami can have a period in the range of ten minutes to two hours and wavelengths greater than 500 km. A wave is characterized as a shallow-water wave when the ratio of the water depth and wavelength is very small. The velocity of a shallow-water wave is also equal to the square root of the product of the
acceleration of gravity, g, (980cm/sec/sec) and the depth of the water, d.

V=Ög * d



Because of this "shoaling" effect, a tsunami that was imperceptible in deep water may grow to have wave heights of several meters or more.
If the trough of the tsunami wave reaches the coast first, this causes a phenomenon called drawdown, where it appears that sea level has dropped considerably.
Drawdown is followed immediately by the crest of the wave which can catch people observing the drawdown off guard. When the crest of the wave hits, sea level rises (called run-up ).
Run-up is usually expressed in meters above normal high tide.

Run-ups from the same tsunami can be variable because of the influence of the shapes of coastlines. One coastal area may see no damaging wave activity while in another area
destructive waves can be large and violent. The flooding of an area can extend inland by 300 m or more, covering large areas of land with water and debris. Flooding tsunami waves tend to carry loose objects and people out to sea when they retreat.

Tsunamis may reach a maximum vertical height onshore above sea level, called a run-up height, of 30 meters. A notable exception is the landslide generated tsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958 which produced a 60 meter high wave because the wavelengths and velocities of tsunamis are so large, the period of such waves is also large, and larger than normal ocean waves. Thus it may take several hours for successive crests to reach the shore. (For a tsunami with a wavelength of 200 km traveling at 750 km/hr, the wave period is about 16 minutes). Thus people are not safe after the passage of the first large wave, but must wait several hours for all waves to pass. The first wave may not be the largest in the series of waves. For example, in several different recent tsunamis the first, third, and fifth waves were the largest.
How Tsunamis Are Formed.

What is a Tsunami?

What is a Tsunami?

What does "tsunami" mean?

Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a nonseismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact.

A tsunami is a very long-wavelength wave of water that is generated by sudden displacement of the seafloor or disruption of any body of standing water. Tsunamis are sometimes called "seismic sea waves", although, as we will see, they can be generated by other mechanisms than
earthquakes. Tsunamis have also been called "tidal waves", but this term should not be used because they are not in any way related to the tides of the Earth. Because tsunamis occur suddenly, often without warning, they are extremely dangerous to coastal communities. How are tsunamis formed....

Life of a Tsunami

Life of a Tsunami

How are tsunamis formed...
Image of Tsunami Generation

kilometers in length.

Image of Tsunami Wave Split


Image of Tsunami Runup
observed above a reference sea level.


first runup of a tsunami is often not the largest,
emphasizing the importance of not returning to a beach many hours after a tsunami first hits. How are tsunamis formed..



A tsunami is a series of waves, made in an ocean, sea or other body of water by an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, or meteorite impact. Tsunamis can cause huge destruction when they hit coastlines. Some people call tsunamis “tidal waves”, but these large waves really have little to do with tides, so the term “tidal wave” does not really suit them.

Tsunami waves are different from the waves you can usually find rolling into the coast of a lake or ocean. Those waves are made by wind offshore and are quite small compared with tsunami waves. A tsunami wave in the open ocean can be more than 100 km across. That’s roughly the length of 1000 American football fields! Tsunami waves are huge and can travel very quickly, at about 700 km/hr, but they are only about one meter high in the open ocean.

As a tsunami wave travels into the shallower water near the coast, it slows and grows in height. Even though a tsunami may be barely visible at sea, it may grow to be many meters high near the coast and have a tremendous amount of energy.
When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide or a series of waves with a maximum height of up to between 25-30 meters.
A few minutes before a tsunami wave hits, the water near shore may move away, exposing the ocean floor. Often the first wave may not be the largest, and additional waves may arrive at the coast every 10 to 60 minutes. They move much faster than a person can run. The danger from a tsunami can last for several hours after the arrival of the first wave.

Unlike other waves, tsunami waves typically do not curl and break. Coasts affected by a tsunami will be severely eroded. A tsunami can cause flooding hundreds of meters inland. The water moves with such force that it is capable of crushing homes and other buildings.
How Are Tsunamis Formed....

How Are Tsunamis Formed


A tsunami is a series of waves generated in an ocean or other body of water by a disturbance such as an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, or meteorite impact. The picture at the left shows how an earthquake can generate a tsunami in the overlying water.

Undersea earthquakes, which typically occur at boundaries between Earth’s tectonic plates, cause the water above to be moved up or down. Tsunami waves are formed as the displaced
water, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to find a stable position again.

Undersea landslides
, which can be caused by large earthquakes, can also cause tsunami waves to form as water attempts to find a stable position.

Undersea volcano eruptions can create enough force to uplift the water column and generate a tsunami.
How Are Tsunamis Formed...