Tsunamis : Cause And Cause Of The Great Sendai Disaster

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

Since Tsunamis have occurred, there has been a considerable amount of destruction to buildings and structures. People have spend Millions in rebuilding these structures which is not benefiting the economy and this disaster has been continuously been in the news and also has been happening around the world especially in the Ring of Fire. This part of the world is disastrous as many seismic sea waves, earthquakes and volcanoes occur. [1] There are many problems relating to waves that affect people over the world. Some waves being very dangerous while other not as much. Tsunamis (Seismic sea Waves) is a series of very huge waves which are created by underwater disturbances including earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruptions or meteorites. [2]

Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes underneath the ocean, which can results in gigantic waves that cause devastation and change the Earth’s surface by causing radiation and causing underwater landslides. In the article “Is Santa Catalina Island Sinking or Rising?” it describes how an effect of tsunamis. It states, “A tsunami could have struck the coast from Catalina when the underwater landslide occured” (Los Angeles Times 2). Therefore, tsunamis can strike coasts and can create landslides underwater, changing the ocean floor by creating caves and canyons. Also, tsunamis can wear away beaches. When giant waves crash into coasts of masses of land, they can wear away the coast. Finally, tsunamis can cause radiation. In the article “Dangerous Tsunami Threat off U.S. West Coast,” it explains, “It [the tsunami] also damaged a nuclear power plant, causing a meltdown and spreading dangerous radiation in the area” (Los Angeles Times). Consequently, tsunamis can destroy and interfere with human made buildings which may contain toxic gases which may be released into the air and cause damage the environment. Incidentally, damaging the environment can lead to killing plant and animal life, and the Earth in that area could potentially become barren and

Natural disasters are a huge challenge for the planet because of the adverse effects that are associated with them. One of the major earthquakes to have shaken the earth is the Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake that occurred in 2011. The event started when a powerful earthquake hit the northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and resulted in a widespread damage on land. A series of massive tsunamis later devastated many parts of the coastal regions of the country with the worst affected being the Tohoku region. The tsunami further resulted in a major nuclear accident that damaged distant regions on a power station located along the coast. The economic effects of the tsunami qualify it as one of the major natural disasters because it affected Japan’s economic stability as the country ended up resorting to importing as an alternative to cover the loss.

The Boxing Day Tsunami had occurred on the 26th of December 2004. The tsunami had started under water, in the Indian Ocean. The cause of the tsunami was that the Indo-Australian plate had subducted below the Eurasian plate, this process is called a convergent plate boundary. This resulted with an underwater earthquake, making waves approximately 20-30 metres high and travelling at speeds up to 500km/ph. Theses waves travelled throughout Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand and left each country in terrible conditions. The earthquake that occurred underwater had

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

Since these earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement therefore displacing the ocean floor they are almost always accompanied by massive ocean waves, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 ft and reaching speeds of 500 mph, known as seismic sea waves or more commonly known as Tsunamis4. Alongside the catastrophic events that megathrust earthquakes ensue on an affected region these colossal Tsunami waves further destruct costal lines in their path, sometimes reaching many miles inland.

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

This generated one of the deadliest tsunamis known to mankind, killing over 230,000 people and leaving over two million people displaced. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Indian Ocean, right off the west coast of Sumatra. The tectonic plates beneath the ocean floor had been colliding and building up pressure for hundreds of years, until this day when subduction occurred between the Indian and the Burma plates. The process of subduction displaced billions of tons of water, creating waves that traveled towards the shorelines at hundreds of miles per hour and as high as sixty to one hundred feet. There was absolutely no warning for the people of Southeast Asia, as the tsunami progressed quite rapidly. (National Geographic,

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

There are several main causes of a tsunami. Doubtlessly, the most damaging tsunamis are caused by earthquakes with a fault line near the ocean floor, or even underwater. Researchers from the International Tsunami Research Center say that sudden vertical displacement over large areas, displace water and end up creating destructive tsunami waves (What Causes Tsunamis). Less periodically, submarine landslides can motivate a tsunami. The United States Geological Survey conducted research and have found that “Tsunamis can be generated on impact as a rapidly moving landslide mass

A tsunami is a series of huge waves occurring when there is a major disturbance on the ocean floor. Tsunamis often occur due to earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides (Park 16). Underwater earthquakes may produce waves that travel in all different directions. Some tsunamis lose power and die out under water, others may produce large waves as they approach land. Tsunamis may look like an onrushing tidal wave as they approach land, but do not occur because of tides (Park 6). Their walls of water can move across the open ocean at speeds of up to 560 miles per hour. When the waves hit the coast, they can reach up to 100 feet (Park 5). The tsunami in Japan is believed to have occurred after two of Earth’s tectonic plates collided in the

Compare the impact between the tsunami in the Indian Ocean with the tsunami in Hokkaido on the population and infrastructure.