Information about tsunami

A wave glider with GNSS and acoustic measuring devices for measurements on the seafloor. Credit: Todd Ericksen The movement between continental and oceanic plates at the bottom of the sea, so-called megathrust earthquakes, generates the strongest tremors and the most dangerous tsunamis. How and when they occur, however, has been poorly understood so far, since the ocean floor is difficult to access for measurements. Thanks to new technologies, an international research team, in which Prof. James Foster from the Institute of Geodesy at the University of Stuttgart was also involved, was able to take measurements to the nearest centimeter for the first time in an underwater-earthquake zone off Alaska. The researchers reported on their findings in the specialist journal Science Advances. The Chignik earthquake on July 28, 2021, occurred 32 km below the seafloor off the coast of Alaska and, with a magnitude of 8.2, was the seventh strongest earthquake in US history. It occurred because the oceanic Pacific Plate is sliding past the continental North American Plate, thereby causing an enormous thrust. In the sparsely populated region, the damage caused by the quake was limited. In general, however, such megathrust earthquakes have enormous destructive potential in the so-called subduction zone, i.e. the zone where oceanic and continental tectonic plates meet. In particular, Despite the scale of these natural hazards, the relevant physical processes involved in megathrust earthqua...

Natural disasters, both on land and under the Tsunamis cannot be stopped, but there are ways to defend against them. Scientists around the world watch for early signs of earthquakes. They also note unusual changes in ocean levels. With this information, scientists can warn people to leave areas that a tsunami might hit. The Pacific Ocean is the site of many tsunamis, but tsunamis can form in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, too. A powerful earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean in December 2004. The earthquake set off tsunamis that hit about 10 countries. More than 200,000 people died. This was the worst tsunami disaster ever recorded. A massive earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011 led to a devastating tsunami in that country as well. • The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages. • Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops. • Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards. • A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. • And so much more! Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. Britannica does not review the converted text. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font do...

The head of a South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they saw all of the facilities they had requested to visit at Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and Japanese officials had carefully answered their questions about a contentious plan to release treated but still slightly radioactive water into the sea, a sign of a further thawing of ties between the countries The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, are called the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and the Great Sendai Earthquake. The day's events are also referred to as 3/11. Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, also called Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake, severe The earthquake and tsunami The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later revised upward.) The The sudden horizontal and vertical thrusting of the Pacific Plate, which has been slowly advancing under the Eurasian Plate near Japan, displaced the water above and spawned a series of highly destructive tsunami waves. A wave measuring some 33 feet high inundated the coast and flooded parts of the city of Review how underwater earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides can generate tsunamis The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific basin. The tsunami raced outward from the epicentre at speeds that approached about 500 miles (800 km) per hour. It generated waves 11 to 12 feet (3.3 to 3.6 metres) high along the coasts of Sulzberger Ice Shelf to break off...

Gallery Nine months after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck Banda Aceh, Indonesia, students attend Lhok Nga Primary School, one of 11 prefabricated schools built by World Vision for children in Aceh province whose schools were destroyed by the tsunami. They live nearby with their families in temporary housing also built by World Vision. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery Booplan Raman, 15, sits next to the rubble of his home. Debris is all that’s left of the family’s possessions after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck the southeast coast of India where he lives. His father, mother, and four siblings survived but are struggling to get by on relief supplies. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery In the days after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the coast of India’s Tamil Nadu state, two young women sift through the remains of their home looking for valuables and documents. Many coastal dwellers lost their livelihoods as fishermen and fish mongers when the waves destroyed their homes, boats, and nets. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery Arahi Japanthan, 26, sits next to a shrine she made in her home in memory of her youngest daughter, Snega. She lost two of her three daughters when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck their coastal village in southeast India. Abineha, 5, and Snega, 3, weren't able to keep up with their sister Kyalvelli, 10, as they fled the rushing waters. Arahi and her husband, Permal, 32, found their bodies af...

A wave glider with GNSS and acoustic measuring devices for measurements on the seafloor. Credit: Todd Ericksen The movement between continental and oceanic plates at the bottom of the sea, so-called megathrust earthquakes, generates the strongest tremors and the most dangerous tsunamis. How and when they occur, however, has been poorly understood so far, since the ocean floor is difficult to access for measurements. Thanks to new technologies, an international research team, in which Prof. James Foster from the Institute of Geodesy at the University of Stuttgart was also involved, was able to take measurements to the nearest centimeter for the first time in an underwater-earthquake zone off Alaska. The researchers reported on their findings in the specialist journal Science Advances. The Chignik earthquake on July 28, 2021, occurred 32 km below the seafloor off the coast of Alaska and, with a magnitude of 8.2, was the seventh strongest earthquake in US history. It occurred because the oceanic Pacific Plate is sliding past the continental North American Plate, thereby causing an enormous thrust. In the sparsely populated region, the damage caused by the quake was limited. In general, however, such megathrust earthquakes have enormous destructive potential in the so-called subduction zone, i.e. the zone where oceanic and continental tectonic plates meet. In particular, Despite the scale of these natural hazards, the relevant physical processes involved in megathrust earthqua...

The head of a South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they saw all of the facilities they had requested to visit at Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and Japanese officials had carefully answered their questions about a contentious plan to release treated but still slightly radioactive water into the sea, a sign of a further thawing of ties between the countries The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, are called the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and the Great Sendai Earthquake. The day's events are also referred to as 3/11. Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, also called Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake, severe The earthquake and tsunami The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later revised upward.) The The sudden horizontal and vertical thrusting of the Pacific Plate, which has been slowly advancing under the Eurasian Plate near Japan, displaced the water above and spawned a series of highly destructive tsunami waves. A wave measuring some 33 feet high inundated the coast and flooded parts of the city of Review how underwater earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides can generate tsunamis The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific basin. The tsunami raced outward from the epicentre at speeds that approached about 500 miles (800 km) per hour. It generated waves 11 to 12 feet (3.3 to 3.6 metres) high along the coasts of Sulzberger Ice Shelf to break off...

Gallery Nine months after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck Banda Aceh, Indonesia, students attend Lhok Nga Primary School, one of 11 prefabricated schools built by World Vision for children in Aceh province whose schools were destroyed by the tsunami. They live nearby with their families in temporary housing also built by World Vision. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery Booplan Raman, 15, sits next to the rubble of his home. Debris is all that’s left of the family’s possessions after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck the southeast coast of India where he lives. His father, mother, and four siblings survived but are struggling to get by on relief supplies. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery In the days after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the coast of India’s Tamil Nadu state, two young women sift through the remains of their home looking for valuables and documents. Many coastal dwellers lost their livelihoods as fishermen and fish mongers when the waves destroyed their homes, boats, and nets. (©2005 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren) Gallery Arahi Japanthan, 26, sits next to a shrine she made in her home in memory of her youngest daughter, Snega. She lost two of her three daughters when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck their coastal village in southeast India. Abineha, 5, and Snega, 3, weren't able to keep up with their sister Kyalvelli, 10, as they fled the rushing waters. Arahi and her husband, Permal, 32, found their bodies af...

Natural disasters, both on land and under the Tsunamis cannot be stopped, but there are ways to defend against them. Scientists around the world watch for early signs of earthquakes. They also note unusual changes in ocean levels. With this information, scientists can warn people to leave areas that a tsunami might hit. The Pacific Ocean is the site of many tsunamis, but tsunamis can form in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, too. A powerful earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean in December 2004. The earthquake set off tsunamis that hit about 10 countries. More than 200,000 people died. This was the worst tsunami disaster ever recorded. A massive earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011 led to a devastating tsunami in that country as well. • The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages. • Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops. • Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards. • A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. • And so much more! Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. Britannica does not review the converted text. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font do...

The head of a South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they saw all of the facilities they had requested to visit at Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and Japanese officials had carefully answered their questions about a contentious plan to release treated but still slightly radioactive water into the sea, a sign of a further thawing of ties between the countries The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, are called the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and the Great Sendai Earthquake. The day's events are also referred to as 3/11. Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, also called Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake, severe The earthquake and tsunami The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck at 2:46 pm. (The early estimate of magnitude 8.9 was later revised upward.) The The sudden horizontal and vertical thrusting of the Pacific Plate, which has been slowly advancing under the Eurasian Plate near Japan, displaced the water above and spawned a series of highly destructive tsunami waves. A wave measuring some 33 feet high inundated the coast and flooded parts of the city of Review how underwater earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides can generate tsunamis The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific basin. The tsunami raced outward from the epicentre at speeds that approached about 500 miles (800 km) per hour. It generated waves 11 to 12 feet (3.3 to 3.6 metres) high along the coasts of Sulzberger Ice Shelf to break off...

A wave glider with GNSS and acoustic measuring devices for measurements on the seafloor. Credit: Todd Ericksen The movement between continental and oceanic plates at the bottom of the sea, so-called megathrust earthquakes, generates the strongest tremors and the most dangerous tsunamis. How and when they occur, however, has been poorly understood so far, since the ocean floor is difficult to access for measurements. Thanks to new technologies, an international research team, in which Prof. James Foster from the Institute of Geodesy at the University of Stuttgart was also involved, was able to take measurements to the nearest centimeter for the first time in an underwater-earthquake zone off Alaska. The researchers reported on their findings in the specialist journal Science Advances. The Chignik earthquake on July 28, 2021, occurred 32 km below the seafloor off the coast of Alaska and, with a magnitude of 8.2, was the seventh strongest earthquake in US history. It occurred because the oceanic Pacific Plate is sliding past the continental North American Plate, thereby causing an enormous thrust. In the sparsely populated region, the damage caused by the quake was limited. In general, however, such megathrust earthquakes have enormous destructive potential in the so-called subduction zone, i.e. the zone where oceanic and continental tectonic plates meet. In particular, Despite the scale of these natural hazards, the relevant physical processes involved in megathrust earthqua...