a tragic scene entire cities flooded
entire towns inundated an unending
stream of floating debris buildings cars
people swept away in an unstoppable wave
it's a brutal reminder tsunamis are
dangerous and unpredictable but what
causes these giant waves and what can be
done to minimize their impact tsunamis
can strike with little warning because
they're usually triggered by a sudden
displacement of ocean water like
volcanic eruptions landslides meteorites
or the most common culprit earthquakes
in the deep ocean a typical tsunami wave
is barely noticeable and poses little
threat but the waves can spread out
thousands of miles rolling across the
ocean at speeds up to 600 miles per hour
as the rolling water reaches the
shoreline the waves friction against the
shallower floor slows it down and raises
its height by the time it reaches the
shore the weight can be as tall as 100
feet unlike ordinary waves a tsunami
wave doesn't crest and break instead it
moves forward like a solid wall of water
that crashes over the coastline
obliterating almost everything in its
path and just when you think the danger
is over it recedes dragging everything
back to the ocean tsunamis have multiple
waves which can continue to hit the
shore for several hours causing even
more destruction the word tsunami
originates from Japan a country that
sits on a geographic location that makes
it an easy target for these natural
disasters in 2011 it was struck by a
tsunami that claimed nearly 16,000 lives
but the deadliest tsunami in has
is believed to be the Indian Ocean
tsunami of 2004 the US Geological Survey
estimated that tsunami released the
energy equivalent of 23,000 Hiroshima
type atomic bombs an earthquake created
an estimated 600 mile rupture on the
ocean floor
this caused the tsunami to form and then
travel at the speed of a jetliner
reaching over 11 countries traveling
over 3,000 miles killing more than
220,000 people because they can strike
so quickly with such deadly force
tsunami warning centers around the globe
are on constant alert monitoring
underwater earthquakes large enough to
trigger massive waves their ultimate
goal is to alert vulnerable coastlines
and give residents time to seek higher
ground before a tsunami hits