Journal Notes

Tsunami- powerful seismic sea wave that begins over an ocean floor earthquake can reach 30 minutes height when approaching land and can use destruction in coastal areas.

The most noticeable difference between a tsunami and a hurricane is the cause of each. A tsunami is the aftermath of an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption. The force of the earthquake or eruption, along with the moving of the tectonic plates, sends large amounts of water in all directions. The waves can be thousands of feet high when they reach the shoreline. These giant waves can arrive at a moment's notice with no warning. The tsunami is a large natural phenomenon originating from the ocean, but it is not the only phenomenon to start in the ocean.

That is the image of a tsunami and they strike somewhere in the world almost every year. Some archeologists say that a mediterranean tsunami hit the north shore of Crete about 3500 years ago which sent Minoan civilization to surrender to Mycenaen Greeks. In the fifth century B.C. the Greek historian, Thuydides, was the first to document the connection between earthquakes and tsunamis. The majority of tsunamis are in the Indian and Pacific oceans where the Tectonic plated collide and the one carrying dense oceanic crust dives under the more floatable one forming a deep ocean trench. Normally it happens smoothly, but sometimes they become stuck and friction strain builds up, then it releases energy which raise and lower the water above it which becomes a tsunami. Created from the seafloor up they grow in dangerous heights in shallow waters only because in the deep oceans it barely

Tsunamis occur when an earthquake happens in the ocean and the energy goes to the water creating huge waves. Tsunamis are very dangerous they can be so strong that they wash away the city, harm thousands, and cause hundreds of thousands to billions of dollars in damage. “A giant tsunami along the West Coast would wash away coastal towns, destroy U.S. Highway 101 and cause $70 billion in damage. More than 100 bridges would be lost, power lines toppled and coastal towns isolated. Residents would have as few as 15 minutes’ notice to flee to higher ground, and as many as 10,000 would die” (Dangerous tsunami threat off U.S. West Coast). This shows what kind of damage this geo-process can

To begin, a volcano is a mountain with an opening in the top or side that sometimes sends out rocks, ash, lava, in a sudden eruption (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). A volcano erupts when pressure builds inside the mountain. Magma, lava while it is inside the volcanoe, pushes through the weakened crust. When this built up pressure is released, Earth’s plates move causing a volcanic eruption. Also, dangerous flows of steaming lava can reach up to 2,000

The Tsunami that took place after the initial quake was caused by a portion of seabed rupturing upwards, and displacing a large portion of the water being displaced. This water traveled at 450 miles, at 8 feet tall, to the Chilean and Peruvian coast. Early viewers of the tsunami later reported waves being up to 10 feet tall. This rupture was believed to be caused by 2 unusually dense pieces of seabed that had been previously undetected by scientists, and consequently caused a large displacement of water. There were also small ruptures of seismic

As survivors from the quake rushed around in fear and confusion, they were greeted by yet another disaster. Shortly after the earthquake, a tsunami occurred. The tsunami’s waves struck the coastline beginning at twenty feet. But as more waves hit the coast, the height of the tsunami grew to just under forty feet, taking out everything that hadn’t already been destroyed by the earthquake, reducing the entire city to rubble. The tsunami stretched across sixty-two miles of coastline near Messina, and another twenty-four miles of coastline near Calabria. The damage from the tsunami was greater near the Calabria coast, where waves were higher and the water quickly swallowed houses and bridges, and flooded rivers. The tsunami that occurred in Messina still holds the title for one of the biggest tsunamis in today’s history. Recently, however, geologists have revisited origin of the tsunami, which is now widely debated. Some

The tsunami waves reached heights up to 128 feet at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as six miles. A tsunami is a series of large sea waves caused by a large displacement of water. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles in Japan. The massive waves destroyed large three-story buildings where many people seeked for safety. Within hours of the first tsunami hit Hawaii and set off multiple warning to Canada, Alaska, South America, the United States, the Oregon coast, and the Pacific.

Tsunamis occur when there is sudden movement in an extensive body of water such as earthquakes, landslides on the sea floor, major volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts. The most common source of a tsunami is earthquakes, which are another type of geomorphic hazard that is caused by the friction and stress that tectonic plates put on each other. Tsunamis primarily occur in coastal or island regions where there is a tectonic border or what is known as the ring of fire. As shown in the diagram below the ring of fire is located along the coastal and island regions of the world.As a result of the Pacific Plate diving beneath the Eurasian plate, on March 11, 2011, there were 2 geomorphic hazards, a magnitude-9 earthquake struck north Japan, which caused a deadly tsunami that reached heights of 39 meters. The destructive dilemma was dubbed ‘The Great Sendai Disaster’. The earthquake was caused by multiple centuries of stress on the tectonic plates surrounding the island. The earthquake caused a tsunami that reached the height of 39 meters (128 feet). Japanese scientists had previously discovered that there was another tsunami just like the one in 2011 that took place in 869 AD. But their warning was unhindered. The tsunami, which occurred in 869 AD, was caused by the same tectonic fault as the 2011 tsunami. The epicenter of the earthquake was off the northeast cost of Japan leading to a devastating tsunami that killed many and left many wishing they were. The massive earthquake caused an upward wave that headed towards the city of Sendai. Researches have recently uncovered a thin layer of clay that lubricated the fault zone causing the deadly tectonic slip, thus creating a tsunami that could wipe out an entire city as it did in 2011.The aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake was not pretty; it caused many deaths, injuries, traumas, financial difficulties, destruction of property, health bills and the destruction of the landscape as a whole. The natural disaster caused nearly 16,000 casualties and there are an estimated 2,500 people still reported missing. Although drowning caused most deaths others include, crushed by debris, suicide and diseases caused by nuclear radiation (cancer) spilled from nuclear

A Volcano is a mountain or hill that has a crater running through it filled with lava, rocks, gas and hot vapour that will erupt. There are three types of volcanoes, there is the Cinder Cone volcano which is the smallest, the Shield volcano which is in most cases the biggest and the Composite volcano which can be the most deadly.

Some of these landforms are shield volcanoes, cinder cone volcanoes, composite volcanoes, and lava plateaus. Another landform that can also be created is a caldera, which results from the collapse of a volcanic mountain. When thin layers of lava harden on a wide, gently sloping mountain, a shield volcano is formed. Volcanoes that are high in lava may produce ash, cinders, and bombs. These materials form a cone-shaped hill around the vent. This is called a cinder cone. When volcanoes alternate between lava and ash, cinder, and bombs, a composite volcano is formed. According to the California Earth Science Textbook, “Composite volcanoes are tall, cone-shaped mountains in which layers of lava alternate with layers of ash.” The volcano gets a pattern of different colors because of

The 2004 Indian Ocean and Tsunami, everyone has heard about this tragic experience before. It is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. A Tsunami is a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide, or other disturbance. For the book, Wave, there was family of four where the brother, mom and dad went to Thailand to spend their winter break. The daughter had decided to spend her winter break in New York City. In Thailand, there was a Tsunami that had struck the resort where the family had been staying at. The dad and his son went out to go and help others while the mom stayed back in the hotel lobby. Or what was left of it.

The word tsunami comes from a Japanese word meaning “Long harbor waives”. Tsunami is much known and very common in Japan because thousands of Japanese have been killed and some suffered in recent centuries. Tsunami waves generally speaking cause a lot of damages such as, killing people, destroying building, and costing million of dollars. Moreover, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that is located on epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, is actually one of the worst disasters in the history of Indian Ocean that generated by the most powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake. An aggressive

When tectonic plates shift, spread apart, or collide, they can form a volcano. Scientists have the theory that tectonic plates explain the locations of volcanoes (Brantley). Volcanoes vary based on size, shape, composition, and eruption style. The three types of volcanoes is shield, cinder cone and composite. Shield volcanoes are formed by liquid from lava flows (Fisher). They are large, with broad summits and low-shaping sides which looks like a shield from above. The volcano, Mauna Loa, in Hawaii is an example of a shield volcano. Cinder cone volcanoes are formed by particles and blobs of lava which break into small fragments that solidify during eruption and fall as cinders around the volcano to make the cone shape (Fisher). The volcano, Sunset Crater, in Arizona is an example of a cinder cone volcano. Composite or Stratovolcanoes, are formed by build up layers of past eruptions. These volcanoes can reach to a height that can make their slopes unstable and can collapse from gravity (Fisher). The volcano, St. Augustine, is an example of a composite volcano. Knowing the different types of volcanoes is helpful to scientists who want to study and predict volcanic eruptions.

What is a Volcano: A volcano is a rupture in the crust of planets such as Earth. They allow hot lava, volcanic ash and gasses to escape from a magma chamber. Magma is formed from the melting of rocks in the Earth’s lithosphere, which is part of the Earth’s crust and is broken up into giant puzzle-like pieces, and also from the shell below the lithosphere which is the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is a soft, fluid part of the Earth that can be pushed around because of the Earth’s warmth. Volcanoes form from eruptions. Once the eruption occurs the lava from the eruption cools to form a new crust. After several eruptions, the rock builds up and forms the cone shaped mountains or hills in which we call volcanoes.