Tsunamis have affected our world for as long as anyone can remember. Their destructive nature has ended and permanently damaged many people 's lives, cost countries billions of dollars, and has changed the world physically and emotionally. Tsunamis are a part of nature that can’t be taken away. They are one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters Mother Nature could throw on us. Tsunamis have a big part in the way we live our lives today. Tsunami comes from the Japanese word for ‘Harbor Wave’. The definition of a tsunami is, “a series of waves in the ocean that sends surges of water onto land” (Tsunamis: Causes...). This series of waves are called a “wave train.” The time period between waves is called the “wave period”. This period …show more content…
“Reverse faults are the primary cause of the largest tsunamis. This is when two plates collide and one plate is lifted over the other plate. While these plates are generally in constant motion. it is at the junction of their boundaries where the plates are locked together and the stress between them begins to build. As the two plates remain locked together, stress continues to build at their intersection. As a result, the sea floor is pulled down with a corresponding rise on the continental side of the fault” (Generation of a Tsunami…). Most of the tsunamis are caused by earthquakes. An earthquake can cause the tsunami by, once an earthquake happens on the seafloor, large pieces of rock move past each other very suddenly, causing the water above to move. Once the earthquake happens, the large, fast-moving, waves move away from the spot the earthquake had happened towards land. 15% of all damaging tsunamis were triggered by strike-slip earthquakes. However, this type of earthquake is less likely to trigger a tsunami than one with vertical motion. Tsunamis are generated by associated landslides or motion of a sloping bathymetry (seafloor) feature and normally affect regions near the source only.The less common cause of a tsunami is a large volcanic eruption causing …show more content…
They create new geological features and show us things we didn’t know existed. As well as those things, they also make us re-think and make us invent new technology to help decrease the lives lost from tsunamis. In the past years, there has been so many different technologies to help protect people from tsunamis. There has been devices that can sense when one is coming, devices that can tell when an earthquake might hit, and even devices to tell how bad it could be. For example, Dart buoys (deep-ocean assessment and reporting of tsunamis) help maintain and improve the capability for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. The DART system consists of buoys positioned at strategic locations throughout the world 's oceans.These technologies have saved many lives and will continue to save them in the future. Thanks to tsunamis we can also find new information about our world and how things work that we don’t see on a daily basis. For example, we now know about plate movement under the ocean that would have never been discovered if we hadn’t had tsunamis to observe. Also, some cities that had been under water that had been considered “lost cities”, were found because of tsunamis. Scientist continue researching and learning more and more about tsunamis and how they work every day. And because of past tsunamis, we now know the precautions needed to be taken in order to remain safe when a
Tsunamis caused by the Earthquake leads to flooding along the coastal environment. This damages any homes. Flooding caused new lakes or sag ponds on the land. Increasing groundwater flow from springs and displacing stream channel. ("Flood Consequences")
The scenario mentioned above was based on the rupture located along the Cascadia fault line. This fault system runs from Northern California to Vancouver Island about 700 miles off the shore (FOX5). Scientists use to believe that the San Andreas Fault was where a large earthquake tsunami would originate, but recently their attention has shifted to the Cascadia subduction zone which is now said to be much more dangerous than previously thought (FOX5). Recent earthquake events have added even more tension and possibility for a large-scale tsunami. On March 10, 2014, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California, which put a lot of stress on the Mendocino Triple Junction (Davidson). The Mendocino Triple Junction is where three tectonic plates collide, and is very unstable (Davidson). This junction has all this built up pressure and is about ready to explode. Scientists believe that this junction will be the origin of a tear along the 680-mile long Cascadia Subduction Zone. (Davidson). The disaster that follows will be considered the United State’s largest modern-day earthquake.
A tsunami is a series of waves “created by an underwater disturbance such as an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, or meteorite” (ready.gov). Tsunami waves are quite different from normal waves. Once a tsunami is set in motion there is no way to really “prevent” it fully, or to stop such an event. Precautionary steps can be taken, such as in Japan where a sea wall was built to protect people and property. However, this was a futile attempt since in 2011 a tsunami was able to surge over the wall, with the water building up and rushing over the top. The lesson learned is that one should not
The San Francisco earthquake that took place in 1906 is fairly well-known because of its damage and intensity that would affect many lives. The online exhibit of The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire shows how much was lost during this natural disaster, and how the city was before. Many would wonder what is the purpose of documenting how it was before, and after the earthquake, but the fact that no one was expecting one so big impacted countless lives. Also, at the time San Francisco was becoming the most popular city, therefore it would appear in the headlines how a well-known place that most people loved would become damaged (The Bancroft Library, 2006). Overall, this virtual field trip shows the cause and effect of the earthquake that would change San Francisco in numerous ways.
Causes and Effects of World War I What were the causes and effects of World War I? The answer to this seemingly simple question is not elementary. There was more to the onset of the war then the event of an Austrian prince being murdered in Serbia, as is what most people consider to be the cause of World War I. Furthermore, the effects of the war were not just concentrated to a post-war era lasting for a generation of Westerners.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit the island of Haiti on January 12, 2010, killing anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 people, injuring another 300,000 others, and leaving over 1.5 million without homes (Fleddermann, 2012, p.116). The majority of the destruction and human toll occurred in Port au Prince, the capital city of Haiti, although the effects of the earthquake were spread throughout the island. Aside from the many people who died, were injured, or left homeless, those involved in this disaster are the Haitian government, the United Nations, civil engineers, the press, relief organizations, and the United States. Although initially perceived as simply a natural disaster, it becomes apparent through further research that the degree of loss experienced might have been lessened if certain procedures and codes were in place and followed to increase the safety and integrity of the buildings in Haiti.
Tsunamis can go the same speed as a jetliner and that massive wave can out run the fastest runner. When there is a lot of waves at once, or the water goes back that is a sign that a tsunami is coming. If that tsunami is far then people need to get to the tallest and strongest building there is in the city that way they are safe and helicopter can pick them up. Tsunamis can wipe out an entire city or 1/4 of the country. Tsunamis can last up to an hour, or more.
Geologists today define an earthquake as the shaking and the trembling of the earth’s surface, known as the ground. Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release of energy, usually as a result of faulting which involves displacements of rocks along fraction. All of this energy has been building up for a long period of time and then suddenly just blows.
Unlike a tsunami being a giant wave that sinks a piece of land, a flood is a temporary overflow of water on usually dry land. Floods can come from heavy rain, storm surges, waterway block and many more. They can occur in a slow pace, taking days, or happen at an instant, becoming a flash flood (Flood).
Additionally, this earthquake occurred on a thrust fault. This fault was a subduction zone slip which occurred primarily beneath the ocean were the Pacific plate plunges underneath the North American plate. This sudden upward movement of the sea floor along the rupturing fault generated a massive tsunami. This vertical deformation
An earthquake occurs abruptly and causes severs damage to people, property, landscape and more. A great mega-thrust earthquake, known as the Great Tohoku Earthquake has shaken Japan at 5:46:24 UTC on March 11, 2011. It caused a severe disaster, including tsunami and nuclear radiation exposure.. This mega-quake located at the latitude 38.297 degree North and longitude of 142.372 degree East, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan (USGS, 2013). An earthquake and tsunami waves caused widespread damage to many areas of Japan. People in Japan are still recovering from the damages.
As the tectonic plates slide over each other, they cause earthquakes. Earthquakes produce various damaging effects, this includes damage to structures of buildings, bridges and other standing formations which then result in injuries and people getting killed, wildlife getting disrupted as well as humans. An earthquake can affect the earth as it’s easier to let the lava come out of the earth. Tsunamis- Can cause financial problems such as home loss, job loss which will then result in being homeless, loss of crops and food supplies which causes a lot of harm to us ‘humans’. A tsunami is a series of waves that send surges of water that can travel thousands of miles.
There was a multitude of causes of the disaster in Japan. The first cause was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the coast of Japan. Japan is located in “The Ring of Fire,” an area in the Pacific Ocean that has multiple faults and earthquakes (Pedersen 13). Tectonic plates shifted off the North Pacific coast of Japan and created a massive earthquake. The next cause was a thirty-three foot wall of water that swept over cities and farmland in Japan (Branigan 2). Martin Fackler, a journalist, stated, “The quake churned up a devastating tsunami” (Fackler 3). The tsunami reached speeds of 497 miles per hour while approaching Japan (Fackler 3). The third and final reason of the disaster was that the cooling systems at multiple nuclear power plants failed. At Fukushima, a nuclear power plant in Sendai, Japan, the radioactive rods began to overheat due to the absence of water, which cools it. Explosions occurred at three of the reactors, which spewed radiation into the air (“Comparing nuclear power plant crises”). In conclusion, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant issues were the causes of the disaster in Japan, but they also had a myriad of effects.
Plates on the outside layer of the Earth, called tectonic plates, are always moving and are roughly one hundred kilometers in thickness. In this case, an earthquake can happen as a result of the stress and movement caused by the plates rubbing back and forth. An earthquake can happen at measurements as great as seven hundred kilometers in length, when tectonic plates bump into each other. On the other hand, California for example, a place where its tectonic plates move past one another, experience shallower earthquakes. This type of earthquake is a result of the tectonic plates resisting and moving past one another along the ridges under the sea (“What causes earthquakes?”).
Volcanoes are formed when magma is expelled from the Earth’s surface, resulting in volcanic eruptions consisting of ash and lava. Over time, the lava cools and forms into rock on the Earth’s surface. Whenever an eruption occurs, the newly-formed rock from the lava layers continuously until the volcano takes its shape. Volcanic eruptions have taken place for thousands of years, and even today, according to the U.S Geological Survey (2010), there are approximately 1500 active volcanoes located throughout the world.