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Tsunamis Where they occur: Most common around the Pacific Rim Max size: Largest ever recorded

was 524m (1,720ft) high Max speed: 800kmph (500mph) Casualties: The current death rate for the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster is 200,000 Tsunamis are giant waves that can wipe out entire coastal regions in minutes. They are caused by the motion of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or massive landslides into the sea. For example, a huge column of water can be generated by an undersea earthquake, which gathers speed and height as it heads towards the shore. The shallower the water becomes, the bigger and faster the wave gets, until it is as tall as a skyscraper, travelling at the speed of a jetliner. A tsunami will only stop when all its energy has been dissipated, so it can travel several hundred feet inland, scooping up boats, cars and other heavy debris and carry them inland. On 26 December 2004, an earthquake occurred between the Australian and Eurasian plates in the Indian Ocean. The epicentre of the earthquake was about 160km (100 miles) from the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. The earthquake triggered a Tsunami that devastated shorelines from Asia to Africa and has so far claimed the lives of over 200,000 people.

On Boxing Day 2004 enormous stresses at the boundary between Australian and Eurasian crustal plates were suddenly released beneath the Indian Ocean. As one plate slid past the other the shifts generated an earthquake of magnitude 9.3 the largest recorded anywhere in 44 years. The earthquake disrupted the seafloor, creating a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean claiming more than 230,000 lives. Could the catastrophe have been predicted and many lives saved? And are we better prepared should such a tsunami strike again?

tsunami (pronounced tsoo-NAH-mee) is a series of waves, made in an ocean 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. Thats 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 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. The earthquake that generated the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is estimated to have
released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
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Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were released suddenly on December 26, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that sped across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner. By the end of the day more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more were homeless in 11 countries, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in history. The epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake was under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to the USGS, which monitors earthquakes worldwide. The violent movement of sections of the Earth's crust, known as tectonic plates, displaced an enormous amount of water, sending powerful shock waves in every direction. The earthquake was the result of the sliding of the portion of the Earth's crust known as the India plate under the section called the Burma plate. The process has been going on for millennia, one plate pushing against the other until something has to give. The result on December 26 was a rupture the USGS estimates was more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards (about 10 meters) horizontally and several yards vertically. That doesn't sound like much, but the trillions of tons of rock that were moved along hundreds of miles caused the planet to shudder with the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years. Above the disturbed seafloor the great volume of the ocean was displaced along the line of the rupture, creating one of nature's most deadly phenomena: a tsunami. Within hours killer waves radiating from the earthquake zone slammed into the coastline of 11 Indian Ocean countries, snatching people out to sea, drowning others in their homes or on beaches, and demolishing property from Africa to Thailand.

Tsunamis have been relatively rare in the Indian Ocean, at least in human memory. They are most prevalent in the Pacific. But every ocean has generated the scourges. Many countries are at risk. (Read "Tsunami: Facts About Killer Waves" for more about killer waves' causes and warning signs information that can be a lifesaver in a tsunami zone.) For more about the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 scroll down the page. The Indian Ocean tsunami traveled as much as 3,000 miles (nearly 5,000 kilometers) to Africa, arriving with sufficient force to kill people and destroy property. A tsunami may be less than a foot (30 centimeters) in height on the surface of the open ocean, which is why they are not noticed by sailors. But the powerful pulse of energy travels rapidly through the ocean at hundreds of miles per hour. Once a tsunami reaches shallow water near the coast it is slowed down. The top of the wave moves faster than the bottom, causing the sea to rise dramatically. The Indian Ocean tsunami caused waves as high as 50 feet (15 meters) in some places, according to news reports. But in many other places witnesses described a rapid surging of the ocean, more like an extremely powerful river or a flood than the advance and retreat of giant waves. Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, that triggered a deadly 23-foot tsunami in the country's north. The giant waves deluged cities and rural areas alike, sweeping away cars, homes, buildings, a train, and boats, leaving a path of death and devastation in its wake. Video footage showed cars racing away from surging waves. The earthquakethe largest in Japan's history struck about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued warnings for Russia, Taiwan, Hawaii, Indonesia, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and the west coasts the U.S., Mexico, Central America, and South America. According to the official toll, the disasters left 15,839 dead, 5,950 injured, and 3,642 missing. Read more: Tsunami Factfile: Learn about the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011 Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/science/weather/japan-tsunami-2011.html#ixzz1qsKxdUgW

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