Waves Of Earth: Tsunamis

Tsunamis 

There are many type of destructive waves on earth such as earthquakes and hurricanes. I am going to talk to you about what has been recently been on the news a lot; Tsunamis. Tsunamis are giant waves that occur in the ocean. Many times we have Tsunamis occur in the middle of the ocean, and only cause small waves on the coast and cause minor damage. We also have the more destructive ones; ones that are known for wiping out coast side cities, completely. 

We have had many big tsunami disasters in the past 10 years. The two greatest was the Indonesia Tsunami of 2004 and the Japanese Tsunami of 2011. The Indonesian Tsunami of 2004 killed over 22,000 people. The Japanese Tsunami of 2011 killed over 15,000 people. The Indonesian Tsunami has been recognized as the biggest Tsunami of the 21st century and one of the biggest ever. Tsunamis can be caused by many things. But one thing Tsunamis are caused by is a disturbance in the ocean that causes waves with unimaginable heights. The two most major specific causes of Tsunamis are earthquakes and volcanic eruption/activity. There are also other things that can cause Tsunamis, but they are less likely, such as landslides, meteor impact, and underwater explosions(man-made). 

Tsunamis occur in many places. But, 80% of all tsunamis occur in the pacific ocean. This is because of the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a large ring or chain of volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean.These volcanoes erupting cause earthquakes. All of these volcanoes erupting cause waves to increase in height, therefore creating tsunamis.The two biggest tsunamis of the 21st century occured in or near the Pacific Ocean.  Tsunamis can have many effects, most of the time minor, but sometimes disastrous. When big tsunamis hit cities, they will most likely knock down many buildings that are small in height or do not have stable architecture. But many other completely random effects can happen as well. As we have witnessed in Japan in 2011, they can flood nuclear plants, rendering them completely vulnerable for a malfunction. In Japan, the cooling system failed because of the flood and leaked toxic, radioactive gases. Overall, tsunamis can cause many things that are unexpected. 

One major contribution into saving many people's lives, is to spot a tsunami before it hits a city. The question is:  how do we predict tsunamis? Well, the most precise way is by satellite imagery. With satellites we can take pictures of oceans and see if there is wave height. Also, buoys can help us. Buoys measure many things such as wave height. If several buoys in an area change their reading from 6 feet wave height to suddenly 35 feet wave height, we can predict that there is a tsunami occuring.  

When detecting tsunamis, they use something called TWS. This stands for Tsunami Warning System. The TWS has many sensors to detect increase in wave height. When TWS does detect a Tsunami, it sends a warning. Then, authorities can start an evacuation of all inhabited areas that could be in the path of the Tsunami. This is very useful and can save people. When a warning is issued out to people of a tsunami it is called a tsunami warning. 

Many wealthy countries that have higher chances of Tsunamis, such as Japan, have  many features of their city to guarantee minimal damage to their cities. Some of theses features include architecture. A lot of the buildings  built in Tokyo have are specially built to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis, to a limit. A lot of times earthquakes that are high on the Richter scale, cause giant tsunamis, that are sadly, unpreventable. 

We can contribute to helping the victims of Tsunamis. We can send money, food, and supplies, We can also make banners and organize teams to aid the victims of Tsunamis.

This is a clip of some of the effects Tsunamis can have on Cities. This is actual footage from the Japan 2011 tsunami.

This is a picture of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The picture above is before the tsunami and the one below is the effects of the terrible tsunami.