Top 10 Facts about Tsunami
Recently, Japan was hit by destructive Tsunami and caused more than 12 thousands people dead and about 15 thousands up to 20 thousands people missing. Tsunami is the main enemy for most of us because Tsunami notoriously destructs many areas in the world not only Japan but also Samoa until Aceh, Indonesia. Here is top 10 fact about Tsunami.
10. Tsunami is a Japanese word
Tsunami word
The word Tsunami is a Japanese word and it means ‘harbor wave’ in English. For a long time, people used to refer Tsunami as tidal wave but this term is no longer used because scientists have proofed that Tsunami has nothing to do with tides.
9. The cause of Tsunami
There are numbers of causes of Tsunami. In most cases including Tsunami in Samoa, Sendai Japan until Aceh Indonesia, Tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquake. Underwater earthquake generate series of sea waves which then attack the offshore and nearby area. The other possible causes of Tsunami are landslide, volcanic eruption until gigantic meteor impact to ocean.
8. Pacific Ocean
Did you know that 80 percents of all Tsunamis happened in Pacific Ocean? There are several Tsunamis occur in the last 10 years such as Tsunami in Japan and in Aceh, Indonesia.
7. Tsunami Prediction
Although many scientists and Tsunami researchers claim that there is a device that can predict when Tsunami will arrive precisely, the fact says that it is nearly impossible to do so. If it is possible, perhaps there won’t be terrible Tsunami in Sendai, Japan recently.
6. Tsunami waves length
How long Tsunami waves can be? After research, it is found that tsunami waves can be 60 miles long and 1 hour apart from side to side. Impressively, these waves can reach the coastline without loosing much energy. This is the reason why Tsunami can be so strong and unstoppable.
5. Tsunami wave amplitude
Although we can see in television or videos that Tsunami waves are so enormous in size, the amplitude (height of the wave) of Tsunami is just about 3 feet in the ocean. At this level, the distant between one peak and another can reach up to 120 miles and can flow at more than 500 mph.
4. Thucydides
Uniquely, The Greek historian named Thucydides in his theory mentions that there is a relation between underwater earthquake and Tsunami. He made the theory in 426 BC.
3. Tsunami as a weapon
Because Tsunami is so destructive and powerful, there has been research to develop the idea to turn Tsunami into a weapon by New Zealand Military Force. They named the project as Project Seal attempting to generate small tsunamis with explosives. This project actually failed.
2. Tsunamis in the last century
There are so many tsunamis occur in the last century, the number is about 26 tsunamis killing more than 200 thousands people in the world.
1. Tilly Smith
Despite of the huge numbers of dead toll caused by 2004 Asian Tsunamis, Tilly Smith saved almost 100 lives. She learned about drawback in geographic lesson in school and told her family for that bad news. Because of her great work, she has an asteroid named: 20002 Tilly Smith.