Tsunami
Question 1: What tsunami was the largest ever recorded?
Answer:
The greatest tsunami wave ever recorded was almost 1,700 feet tall and occurred in Lituya Bay, Alaska, on July 9, 1958. Five square miles of land were flooded, and tens of thousands of trees were felled.
Question 2: When do tsunamis occur?
Answer:
In some places, large tsunamis might last for days before reaching their height, which usually happens a few hours after arrival and then gradually fades away. The tsunami period, or the interval between tsunami crests, can last anywhere between five minutes and two hours. Tsunami currents that are dangerous might linger for days.
Question 3: How common are tsunamis?
Answer:
In the Pacific Basin, there are often two catastrophic tsunamis per year. Pacific-wide tsunamis are a rare occurrence, happening around once every 10 to 12 years. There is no season for tsunamis, and they don’t happen often or frequently.
What is a Tsunami?
Tsunami is a Japanese word that sounds like “soo-nah-me,” with “tsu” standing for harbor and “nami” for wave. Tsunamis are waves brought on by the abrupt movement of the ocean’s surface as a result of earthquakes, seafloor landslides, landfalls into the water, powerful volcanic eruptions, or meteorite impacts.
The word “tidal wave,” which was once used to describe tsunami, is now universally avoided because the formation of the tsunami has nothing to do with tides (which are driven by the gravity of the Earth, Moon, and Sun). There are times when a tsunami will also include one or more choppy breaking waves, despite the fact that sometimes they will appear at the coast as a swiftly rising or lowering tide.