Related topics: earthquake
Tsunami
hideA tsunami (津波?) (pronounced /(t)suːˈnɑːmi/) is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train) that is caused when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into "harbor wave."
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (detonations of nuclear devices at sea), landslides and other mass movements, bolide impacts, and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Due to the immense volumes of water and energy involved, the effects of tsunamis can be devastating.
The Greek historian Thucydides was the first to relate tsunami to submarine quakes, but understanding of the nature of tsunami remained slim until the 20th century and is the subject of ongoing research.
Many early geological, geographical, and oceanographic texts refer to tsunamis as "seismic sea waves."
Some meteorological conditions, such as deep depressions that cause tropical cyclones, can generate a storm surge, called a meteotsunami, which can be several metres above normal tide levels. This is due to the low atmospheric pressure within the centre of the depression. As these storm surges come ashore, they may resemble (though are not) tsunamis, inundating vast areas of land. Such a storm surge inundated Burma (Myanmar) in May 2008.
For more information about Tsunami, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with tsunami
Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved (w/ Video)
Nov 19, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (27) |
9
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as ...
Samoan Tsunami wave was 46 feet high
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 04, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (7) |
0
(AP) -- The tsunami that killed more than 200 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga earlier this year towered up to 46 feet (14 meters) high - more then twice as tall as most of the buildings it slammed into, scientists ...
Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the minutes after a strong earthquake struck offshore of the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, fears of a tsunami prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the coastal ...
Search results for tsunami
India's Tata launches low-cost water filter for rural poor
Dec 07, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (4) |
1
India's giant Tata Group on Monday unveiled a new low-cost water purifier, hoping to do for health what it did for motoring and provide affordable, safe drinking water for millions and cut disease.
2009: the Year of Twitter
Nov 30, 2009 |
1 / 5 (1) |
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The year has not yet ended but Microsoft says "Twitter" was among the top searches of 2009 on its new search engine Bing and a company which monitors language has crowned it the top word of the year.
Monster Waves on the Sun are Real (w/ Video)
Nov 25, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (20) |
2
Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft are telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar ...
On the Crest of Wave Energy
Nov 19, 2009 |
3.5 / 5 (4) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the ...
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