POWER OF NATURE

Nature reveals its true strength in many ways, such as tornadoes, volcano,
earthquake, tsunami and many others. in this presentation I will refer only to the first
four events and explain how do they form.

Tornado

Etymology

The word tornado is an altered form of the Spanish word tronada, which
means "thunderstorm". This in turn was taken from the Latin tonare, meaning "to
thunder". It most likely reached its present form through a combination of the
Spanish tronada and tornar ("to turn"); however, this may be a folk etymology.[11]
[12] A tornado is also commonly referred to as a "twister", and is also sometimes
referred to by the old-fashioned colloquial term cyclone.[13][14] The term "cyclone"
is used as a synonym for "tornado" in the often-aired 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.
The term "twister" is also used in that film, along with being the title of the 1996
tornado-related film Twister.

Definitions

A tornado is "a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground,
either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often
(but not always) visible as a funnel cloud".[15] For a vortex to be classified as a
tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. Scientists
have not yet created a complete definition of the word; for example, there is
disagreement as to whether separate touchdowns of the same funnel constitute
separate tornadoes.[4] Tornado refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation
cloud.

Size and shape

 A wedge tornado, nearly a mile wide. This tornado hit Binger, Oklahoma.

A rope tornado in its dissipating stage, Tecumseh, Oklahoma.

Most tornadoes take on the appearance of a narrow funnel, a few hundred

yards (meters) across, with a small cloud of debris near the ground. Tornadoes may
be obscured completely by rain or dust. These tornadoes are especially dangerous,
as even experienced meteorologists might not see them.[23] Tornadoes can appear
in many shapes and sizes.

Small, relatively weak landspouts may be visible only as a small swirl of dust
on the ground. Although the condensation funnel may not extend all the way to the
ground, if associated surface winds are greater than 40 mph (64 km/h), the
circulation is considered a tornado.[16] A tornado with a nearly cylindrical profile and
relative low height is sometimes referred to as a "stovepipe" tornado. Large single-
vortex tornadoes can look like large wedges stuck into the ground, and so are known
as "wedge tornadoes" or "wedges". The "stovepipe" classification is also used for
this type of tornado, if it otherwise fits that profile. A wedge can be so wide that it
appears to be a block of dark clouds, wider than the distance from the cloud base to
the ground. Even experienced storm observers may not be able to tell the difference
between a low-hanging cloud and a wedge tornado from a distance. Many, but not
all major tornadoes are wedges

Sound and seismology

Tornadoes emit widely on the acoustics spectrum and the sounds are caused
by multiple mechanisms. Various sounds of tornadoes have been reported
throughout time, mostly related to familiar sounds for the witness and generally
some variation of a whooshing roar. Popularly reported sounds include a freight
train, rushing rapids or waterfall, a nearby jet engine, or combinations of these. Many
tornadoes are not audible from much distance; the nature and propagation distance
of the audible sound depends on atmospheric conditions and topography.

The winds of the tornado vortex and of constituent turbulent eddies, as well
as airflow interaction with the surface and debris, contribute to the sounds. Funnel
clouds also produce sounds. Funnel clouds and small tornadoes are reported as
whistling, whining, humming, or the buzzing of innumerable bees or electricity, or
more or less harmonic, whereas many tornadoes are reported as a continuous, deep
rumbling, or an irregular sound of "noise".[40]

Since many tornadoes are audible only when very near, sound is not reliable
warning of a tornado. And, any strong, damaging wind, even a severe hail volley or
continuous thunder in a thunderstorm may produce a roaring sound.[41]

An illustration of generation of infrasound in tornadoes by the Earth System

Research Laboratory's Infrasound Program

Unlike audible signatures, tornadic signatures have been isolated; due to the
long distance propagation of low-frequency sound, efforts are ongoing to develop
tornado prediction and detection devices with additional value in understanding
tornado morphology, dynamics, and creation.[43] Tornadoes also produce a
detectable seismic signature, and research continues on isolating it and
understanding the process.

A sequence of images showing the birth of a tornado. First, the rotating cloud
base lowers. This lowering becomes a funnel, which continues descending
while winds build near the surface, kicking up dust and other debris. Finally,
the visible funnel extends to the ground, and the tornado begins causing
major damage. This tornado, near Dimmitt, Texas, was one of the best-
observed violent tornadoes in history.
Dust devil

A dust devil in Arizona

A dust devil resembles a tornado in that it is a vertical swirling column of air.

However, they form under clear skies and are no stronger than the weakest
tornadoes. They form when a strong convective updraft is formed near the ground
on a hot day. If there is enough low level wind shear, the column of hot, rising air can
develop a small cyclonic motion that can be seen near the ground. They are not
considered tornadoes because they form during fair weather and are not associated
with any clouds. However, they can, on occasion, result in major damage in arid
areas.
Detection

Rigorous attempts to warn of tornadoes began in the United States in the

mid-20th century. Before the 1950s, the only method of detecting a tornado was by
someone seeing it on the ground. Often, news of a tornado would reach a local
weather office after the storm. However, with the advent of weather radar, areas
near a local office could get advance warning of severe weather. The first public
tornado warnings were issued in 1950 and the first tornado watches and convective
outlooks in 1952. In 1953 it was confirmed that hook echoes are associated with
tornadoes.[81] By recognizing these radar signatures, meteorologists could detect
thunderstorms probably producing tornadoes from dozens of miles away.[82]

A Doppler on Wheels radar loop of a hook echo and associated mesocyclone

in Goshen County, Wyoming on June 5, 2009. Strong mesocyclones show up
as adjacent areas of yellow and blue (on other radars, bright red and bright
green), and usually indicate an imminent or occurring tornado.

Radar

Today, most developed countries have a network of weather radars, which

remains the main method of detecting signatures probably associated with
tornadoes. In the United States and a few other countries, Doppler weather radar
stations are used. These devices measure the velocity and radial direction (towards
or away from the radar) of the winds in a storm, and so can spot evidence of rotation
in storms from more than a hundred miles (160 km) away. When storms are distant
from a radar, only areas high within the storm are observed and the important areas
below are not sampled.[83] Data resolution also decreases with distance from the
radar. Some meteorological situations leading to tornadogenesis are not readily
detectable by radar and on occasion tornado development may occur more quickly
than radar can complete a scan and send the batch of data. Also, most populated
areas on Earth are now visible from the Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellites (GOES), which aid in the nowcasting of tornadic storms
 Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which

allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface.

Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or

converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples
of volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of
Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming
together. By contrast, volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates
slide past one another. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and
thinning of the Earth's crust in the interiors of plates, e.g., in the East African Rift, the
Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and the Rio Grande Rift in North America. This
type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of "Plate hypothesis" volcanism.[1]

Intraplate volcanism has also been postulated to be caused by mantle

plumes. These so-called "hotspots", for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from
upwelling diapirs from the core-mantle boundary, 3,000 km deep in the Earth.

Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska photographed from the

International Space Station, May 2006

Etymology

The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the
Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn originates from Vulcan, the name of a
god of fire in Roman mythology.[2] The study of volcanoes is called volcanology,
sometimes spelled vulcanology.
Plate tectonics

Map showing the divergent plate boundaries (OSR – Oceanic Spreading

Ridges) and recent sub aerial volcanoes.

Divergent plate boundaries

At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another. New
oceanic crust is being formed by hot molten rock slowly cooling and solidifying. The
crust is very thin at mid-oceanic ridges due to the pull of the tectonic plates. The
release of pressure due to the thinning of the crust leads to adiabatic expansion, and
the partial melting of the mantle causing volcanism and creating new oceanic crust.
Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans, therefore most
volcanic activity is submarine, forming new seafloor. Black smokers or deep sea
vents are an example of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is
above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed, for example, Iceland.

Mount Rinjani eruption in 1994, in Lombok, Indonesia

Convergent plate boundaries

Subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and
a continental plate, collide. In this case, the oceanic plate subducts, or submerges
under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. Water
released from the subducting plate lowers the melting temperature of the overlying
mantle wedge, creating magma. This magma tends to be very viscous due to its
high silica content, so often does not reach the surface and cools at depth. When it
does reach the surface, a volcano is formed. Typical examples for this kind of
volcano are Mount Etna and the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Supervolcanoes

The Lake Toba volcano created a caldera 100 km long

A supervolcano is a large volcano that usually has a large caldera and can
potentially produce devastation on an enormous, sometimes continental, scale.
Such eruptions would be able to cause severe cooling of global temperatures for
many years afterwards because of the huge volumes of sulfur and ash erupted.
They are the most dangerous type of volcano. Examples include Yellowstone
Caldera in Yellowstone National Park and Valles Caldera in New Mexico (both
western United States), Lake Taupo in New Zealand, Lake Toba in Sumatra,
Indonesia and Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania, Krakatoa near Java and Sumatra,
Indonesia. Supervolcanoes are hard to identify centuries later, given the enormous
areas they cover. Large igneous provinces are also considered supervolcanoes
because of the vast amount of basalt lava erupted, but are non-explosive.
Volcanic activity

Active volcano Mount St. Helens shortly after the eruption of 18 May 1980

Damavand, the highest volcano in Asia, is a potentially active volcano with

fumaroles and solfatara near its summit.
 Fourpeaked volcano, Alaska, in September 2007, after being thought extinct
for over 10,000 years.

Popular classification of volcanoes

1. Active

A popular way of classifying magmatic volcanoes is by their frequency of

eruption, with those that erupt regularly called active, those that have erupted in
historical times but are now quiet called dormant, and those that have not erupted in
historical times called extinct. However, these popular classifications—extinct in
particular—are practically meaningless to scientists. They use classifications which
refer to a particular volcano's formative and eruptive processes and resulting
shapes, which was explained above.

There is no real consensus among volcanologists on how to define an

"active" volcano. The lifespan of a volcano can vary from months to several million
years, making such a distinction sometimes meaningless when compared to the
lifespans of humans or even civilizations. For example, many of Earth's volcanoes
have erupted dozens of times in the past few thousand years but are not currently
showing signs of eruption. Given the long lifespan of such volcanoes, they are very
active. By human lifespans, however, they are not.

Scientists usually consider a volcano to be erupting or likely to erupt if it is

currently erupting, or showing signs of unrest such as unusual earthquake activity or
significant new gas emissions. Most scientists consider a volcano active if it has
erupted in holocene times. Historic times is another timeframe for active.[4] But it is
important to note that the span of recorded history differs from region to region. In
China and the Mediterranean, recorded history reaches back more than 3,000 years
but in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, it reaches back less
than 300 years, and in Hawaii and New Zealand, only around 200 years.[5] The
Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program's definition of active is having erupted within
the last 10,000 years (the 'holocene' period).

Presently there are about 500 active volcanoes in the world – the majority
following along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' – and around 50 of these erupt each year.[6]
The United States is home to 50 active volcanoes.[7] There are more than 1,500
potentially active volcanoes.[8] An estimated 500 million people live near active
volcanoes.

2. Extinct

Extinct volcanoes are those that scientists consider unlikely to erupt again,
because the volcano no longer has a lava supply. Examples of extinct volcanoes are
many volcanoes on the Hawaiian – Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean,
Hohentwiel, Shiprock and the Zuidwal volcano in the Netherlands. Edinburgh Castle
in Scotland is famously located atop an extinct volcano. Otherwise, whether a
volcano is truly extinct is often difficult to determine. Since "supervolcano" calderas
can have eruptive lifespans sometimes measured in millions of years, a caldera that
has not produced an eruption in tens of thousands of years is likely to be considered
dormant instead of extinct.

3. Dormant

It is difficult to distinguish an extinct volcano from a dormant one. Volcanoes

are often considered to be extinct if there are no written records of its activity.
Nevertheless, volcanoes may remain dormant for a long period of time. For
example, Yellowstone has a repose/recharge period of around 700 ka, and Toba of
around 380 ka.[10] Vesuvius was described by Roman writers as having been
covered with gardens and vineyards before its famous eruption of AD 79, which
destroyed the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Before its catastrophic eruption
of 1991, Pinatubo was an inconspicuous volcano, unknown to most people in the
surrounding areas. Two other examples are the long-dormant Soufrière Hills volcano
on the island of Montserrat, thought to be extinct before activity resumed in 1995
and Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska, which, before its September 2006 eruption,
had not erupted since before 8000 BC and had long been thought to be extinct.

Earthquake

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a

sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The
seismicity or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of
earthquakes experienced over a period of time. Earthquakes are measured using
observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale
on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe.
The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national
seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also
referred to as the Richter scale. These two scales are numerically similar over their
range of validity. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are mostly almost imperceptible
and magnitude 7 and over potentially cause serious damage over large areas,
depending on their depth. The largest earthquakes in historic times have been of
magnitude slightly over 9, although there is no limit to the possible magnitude. The
most recent large earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or larger was a 9.0 magnitude
earthquake in Japan in 2011 (as of March 2011), and it was the largest Japanese
earthquake since records began. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified
Mercalli scale. The shallower an earthquake, the more damage to structures it
causes, all else being equal.[1]

At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and

sometimes displacement of the ground. When the epicenter of a large earthquake is
located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause a tsunami.
Earthquakes can also trigger landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity.

In its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any
seismic event — whether natural or caused by humans — that generates seismic
waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by
other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. An
earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The epicenter is
the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter.
 Global plate tectonic movement

Naturally occurring earthquakes

Tectonic earthquakes occur anywhere in the earth where there is sufficient

stored elastic strain energy to drive fracture propagation along a fault plane. The
sides of a fault move past each other smoothly and aseismically only if there are no
irregularities or asperities along the fault surface that increase the frictional
resistance. Most fault surfaces do have such asperities and this leads to a form of
stick-slip behaviour. Once the fault has locked, continued relative motion between
the plates leads to increasing stress and therefore, stored strain energy in the
volume around the fault surface. This continues until the stress has risen sufficiently
to break through the asperity, suddenly allowing sliding over the locked portion of the
fault, releasing the stored energy. This energy is released as a combination of
radiated elastic strain seismic waves, frictional heating of the fault surface, and
cracking of the rock, thus causing an earthquake. This process of gradual build-up of
strain and stress punctuated by occasional sudden earthquake failure is referred to
as the elastic-rebound theory. It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of an
earthquake's total energy is radiated as seismic energy. Most of the earthquake's
energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth or is converted into heat
generated by friction. Therefore, earthquakes lower the Earth's available elastic
potential energy and raise its temperature, though these changes are negligible
compared to the conductive and convective flow of heat out from the Earth's deep
interior.[2]
Earthquake fault types

Fault types
There are three main types of fault that may cause an earthquake: normal,
reverse (thrust) and strike-slip. Normal and reverse faulting are examples of dip-slip,
where the displacement along the fault is in the direction of dip and movement on
them involves a vertical component. Normal faults occur mainly in areas where the
crust is being extended such as a divergent boundary. Reverse faults occur in areas
where the crust is being shortened such as at a convergent boundary. Strike-slip
faults are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each
other; transform boundaries are a particular type of strike-slip fault. Many
earthquakes are caused by movement on faults that have components of both dip-
slip and strike-slip; this is known as oblique slip.

Reverse faults, particularly those along convergent plate boundaries are

associated with the most powerful earthquakes, including almost all of those of
magnitude 8 or more. Strike-slip faults, particularly continental transforms can
produce major earthquakes up to about magnitude 8. Earthquakes associated with
normal faults are generally less than magnitude 7.

This is so because the energy released in an earthquake, and thus its

magnitude, is proportional to the area of the fault that ruptures[3] and the stress
drop. Therefore, the longer the length and the wider the width of the faulted area, the
larger the resulting magnitude. The topmost, brittle part of the Earth’s crust, and the
cool slabs of the tectonic plates that are descending down into the hot mantel, are
the only parts of our planet which can store elastic energy and release it in fault
ruptures. Rocks hotter than about 300 degrees Celsius flow in response to stress,
they do not rupture in earthquakes.[4][5] The maximum observed lengths of ruptures
and mapped faults, which may break in one go are approximately 1000 km.
Examples are the earthquakes in Chile, 1960; Alaska, 1957; Sumatra, 2004, all in
subduction zones. The longest earthquake ruptures on strike-slip faults, like the San
Andreas Fault (1857, 1906), the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey (1939) and the
Denali Fault in Alaska (2002), are about half to one third as long as the lengths
along subducting plate margins, and those along normal faults are even shorter.

The most important parameter controlling the maximum earthquake

magnitude on a fault is however not the maximum available length, but the available
width because the latter varies by a factor of 20. Along converging plate margins, the
dip angle of the rupture plane is very shallow, typically about 10 degrees [1]. Thus
the width of the plane within the top brittle crust of the Earth can become 50 to 100
km (Tohoku, 2011; Alaska, 1964), making the most powerful earthquakes possible.

Strike-slip faults tend to be oriented near vertically, resulting in an

approximate width of 10 km within the brittle crust [2], thus earthquakes with
magnitudes much larger than 8 are not possible. Maximum magnitudes along many
normal faults are even more limited because many of them are located along
spreading centers, as in Iceland, where the thickness of the brittle layer is only about
6 km.[6][3]

In addition, there exists a hierarchy of stress level in the three fault types.
Thrust faults are generated by the highest, strike slip by intermediate, and normal
faults by the lowest stress levels.[7] This can easily be understood by considering
the direction of the greatest principal stress, the direction of the force that ‘pushes’
the rock mass during the faulting. In the case of normal faults, the rock mass is
pushed down in a vertical direction, thus the pushing force (greatest principal stress)
equals the weight of the rock mass itself. In the case of thrusting, the rock mass
‘escapes’ in the direction of the least principal stress, namely upward, lifting the rock
mass up, thus the overburden equals the least principal stress. Strike-slip faulting is
intermediate between the other two types described above. This difference in stress
regime in the three faulting environments can contribute to differences in stress drop
during faulting, which contributes to differences in the radiated energy, regardless of
fault dimensions.

Tsunami

Etymology and history

The term tsunami comes from the Japanese 津波, composed of the two kanji
津 (tsu) meaning "harbor" and 波 (nami), meaning "wave". (For the plural, one can
either follow ordinary English practice and add an s, or use an invariable plural as in
the Japanese.[8])

Tsunami are sometimes referred to as tidal waves. In recent years, this term
has fallen out of favor, especially in the scientific community, because tsunami
actually have nothing to do with tides. The once-popular term derives from their most
common appearance, which is that of an extraordinarily high tidal bore. Tsunami and
tides both produce waves of water that move inland, but in the case of tsunami the
inland movement of water is much greater and lasts for a longer period, giving the
impression of an incredibly high tide. Although the meanings of "tidal" include
"resembling"[9] or "having the form or character of"[10] the tides, and the term
tsunami is no more accurate because tsunami are not limited to harbours, use of the
term tidal wave is discouraged by geologists and oceanographers.

There are only a few other languages that have an equivalent native word. In
the Tamil language, the word is aazhi peralai. In the Acehnese language, it is ië
beuna or alôn buluëk[11] (Depending on the dialect. Note that in the fellow
Austronesian language of Tagalog, a major language in the Philippines, alon means
"wave".) On Simeulue island, off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, in the
Defayan language the word is smong, while in the Sigulai language it is emong.[12]

Generation mechanisms

The principal generation mechanism (or cause) of a tsunami is the

displacement of a substantial volume of water or perturbation of the sea.[17] This
displacement of water is usually attributed to either earthquakes, landslides, volcanic
eruptions,glacier calvings or more rarely by meteorites and nuclear tests.[18][19]
The waves formed in this way are then sustained by gravity. Tides do not play any
part in the generation of tsunamis.
Tsunami generated by seismicity

Tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically
displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of
earthquake that are associated with the Earth's crustal deformation; when these
earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced
from its equilibrium position.[20] More specifically, a tsunami can be generated when
thrust faults associated with convergent or destructive plate boundaries move
abruptly, resulting in water displacement, owing to the vertical component of
movement involved. Movement on normal faults will also cause displacement of the
seabed, but the size of the largest of such events is normally too small to give rise to
a significant tsunami.

Drawing of tectonic plate boundary before earthquake

Overriding plate bulges under strain, causing tectonic uplift.

 Plate slips, causing subsidence and releasing energy into water.

The energy released produces tsunami waves.

Tsunamis have a small amplitude (wave height) offshore, and a very long
wavelength (often hundreds of kilometers long, whereas normal ocean waves have
a wavelength of only 30 or 40 metres),[21] which is why they generally pass
unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 300 millimetres (12 in)
above the normal sea surface. They grow in height when they reach shallower
water, in a wave shoaling process described below. A tsunami can occur in any tidal
state and even at low tide can still inundate coastal areas.

On April 1, 1946, a magnitude-7.8 (Richter Scale) earthquake occurred near

the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. It generated a tsunami which inundated Hilo on the
island of Hawai'i with a 14 metres (46 ft) high surge. The area where the earthquake
occurred is where the Pacific Ocean floor is subducting (or being pushed
downwards) under Alaska.

Examples of tsunami originating at locations away from convergent

boundaries include Storegga about 8,000 years ago, Grand Banks 1929, Papua
New Guinea 1998 (Tappin, 2001). The Grand Banks and Papua New Guinea
tsunamis came from earthquakes which destabilized sediments, causing them to
flow into the ocean and generate a tsunami. They dissipated before traveling
transoceanic distances.

The cause of the Storegga sediment failure is unknown. Possibilities include

an overloading of the sediments, an earthquake or a release of gas hydrates
(methane etc.)

The 1960 Valdivia earthquake (Mw 9.5) (19:11 hrs UTC), 1964 Alaska
earthquake (Mw 9.2), 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (Mw 9.2) (00:58:53 UTC) and
2011 Tōhoku earthquake (Mw9.0) are recent examples of powerful megathrust
earthquakes that generated tsunamis (known as teletsunamis) that can cross entire
oceans. Smaller (Mw 4.2) earthquakes in Japan can trigger tsunamis (called local
and regional tsunamis) that can only devastate nearby coasts, but can do so in only
a few minutes.

In the 1950s, it was discovered that larger tsunamis than had previously been
believed possible could be caused by giant landslides. These phenomena rapidly
displace large water volumes, as energy from falling debris or expansion transfers to
the water at a rate faster than the water can absorb. Their existence was confirmed
in 1958, when a giant landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska, caused the highest wave ever
recorded, which had a height of 524 metres (over 1700 feet). The wave didn't travel
far, as it struck land almost immediately. Two people fishing in the bay were killed,
but another boat amazingly managed to ride the wave. Scientists named these
waves megatsunami.

Scientists discovered that extremely large landslides from volcanic island

collapses can generate megatsunamis that can cross oceans.

Characteristics

When the wave enters shallow water, it slows down and its amplitude (height)
increases.
 The wave further slows and amplifies as it hits land. Only the largest waves
crest.

Tsunamis cause damage by two mechanisms: the smashing force of a wall of

water travelling at high speed, and the destructive power of a large volume of water
draining off the land and carrying all with it, even if the wave did not look large.

While everyday wind waves have a wavelength (from crest to crest) of about
100 metres (330 ft) and a height of roughly 2 metres (6.6 ft), a tsunami in the deep
ocean has a wavelength of about 200 kilometres (120 mi). Such a wave travels at
well over 800 kilometres per hour (500 mph), but owing to the enormous wavelength
the wave oscillation at any given point takes 20 or 30 minutes to complete a cycle
and has an amplitude of only about 1 metre (3.3 ft).[22] This makes tsunamis difficult
to detect over deep water. Ships rarely notice their passage.

As the tsunami approaches the coast and the waters become shallow, wave
shoaling compresses the wave and its velocity slows below 80 kilometres per hour
(50 mph). Its wavelength diminishes to less than 20 kilometres (12 mi) and its
amplitude grows enormously. Since the wave still has the same very long period, the
tsunami may take minutes to reach full height. Except for the very largest tsunamis,
the approaching wave does not break, but rather appears like a fast-moving tidal
bore.[23] Open bays and coastlines adjacent to very deep water may shape the
tsunami further into a step-like wave with a steep-breaking front.

When the tsunami's wave peak reaches the shore, the resulting temporary
rise in sea level is termed run up. Run up is measured in metres above a reference
sea level.[23] A large tsunami may feature multiple waves arriving over a period of
hours, with significant time between the wave crests. The first wave to reach the
shore may not have the highest run up.[24]

About 80% of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, but they are possible
wherever there are large bodies of water, including lakes. They are caused by
earthquakes, landslides, volcanic explosions glacier calvings, and bolides.