What is a tsunami?

Here’s an article I found that explains some key points.

The word tsunami is Japanese, and it means ‘harbour wave’.

A tsunami is a huge volume of moving seawater and has nothing to do with tides although it is sometimes mistakenly called a tidal wave.

These giant waves can travel for thousands of miles across the sea and still create a lethal energy that destroys buildings, trees, wildlife and people.

If you throw a stone in a pond it will create a series of ripples. A tsunami is just like those ripples but the disturbance that sets them moving is much greater than a small stone. It can be triggered an undersea earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption.

The most frequent tsunami-maker is the buckling of the seafloor caused by an undersea earthquake. Large volumes of seawater are displaced creating a tsunami.

Where do these undersea earthquakes occur?

The earth is made up of several pieces of hard rock that fit together a bit like a jigsaw. These are called tectonic plates, and they move very slowly. Oceanic plates are denser/heavier than continental plates and so they slide under the continental plates. Where this happens it is called a subduction zone. There are subduction zones off Chile, Nicaragua, Mexico and Indonesia. These areas are prone to earthquakes, which happen when the plates suddenly move against each other.

What other things could create a tsunami?

Sometimes when an ocean island collapse it causes a huge displacement of water which can also create a tsunami. Very rarely, a tsunami can be created by a giant meteor hitting the ocean!

In deep water tsunami waves can reach speeds of 500mph, almost fast enough to keep pace with a jet airplane. The waves spread out with hundreds of miles between wave crests that may be just a few feet high.

In deep water, the waves spread out with hundreds of miles between wave crests that may be just a few feet high. A tsunami wave also extends thousands of feet deep into the ocean.

As a tsunami reaches the shore it gradually slows down and increases in height.

The Pacific Ocean experiences more tsunamis than anywhere else in the world. Tsunamis have also occurred in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. (this are is also called the PACIFIC RING OF FIRE…the most earquakes occur here.)