Natural Disaster

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves. They are one of the biggest disasters in the world which mainly damage the cities that or close to the ocean or harbors. Tsunamis are generated by a sudden displacement on the ocean floor, landslides, earthquakes, or volcanic activities. A tsunami is formed because the waves slow down when it reaches the shore which makes the water become compressed which causes it to rise and fall down on land. Most of the tsunamis waves are high because they have not lost a lot of energy because of friction or spreading. Many of them can travel 500 miles per hour and slows down to 20 to 30 miles per hour when it reaches shallow waters or the shore. In less than 24 hours a tsunami can travel across the pacific ocean.

A tsunami is capable of demolishing a whole city within minutes. It can also destruct the entire pacific basin and kill thousands people, if it is strong. If a person is caught in middle of Tsunami it is very difficult for him to survive. He'll either drown in the water or get crushed in debris. A tsunami can have waves over three hundred miles wide and can reach a height of about hundred feet.

In the deep ocean tsunami is barely noticeable but when it approaches land it becomes a hazard. The tsunami is named from the Japanese words tsu which mean harbor and nami which means waves. The impact of a tsunami can be much less if people are prepared and warned on timely basis. A tsunami hit southeast Asia on December 26, 2004. It was the deadliest disaster in modern history killing over 240,000 people. Hawaii in US gets the most Tsunamis than any other state and has a risk of getting onother one.