Tsunamis By Zamzam

What's a Tsunami? A tsunami is a huge volume of moving seawater.  These giant waves can travel for thousands of miles across the sea and still have enough energy and force to destroy buildings, trees, wildlife and people. If you throw a stone in a pond it will create a series of ripples.  A tsunami is just like those ripples but the disturbance that sets them moving is much greater than a small stone.  It can be triggered by an undersea earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption.

How it affects the environment? All of the damage from the tsunami, such as all the destroyed buildings, with fluids draining from these and leaking back into the ocean, into other farm land, or into rural areas. All of the fluids leaking from the buildings can harshly damage the environment by flooding into the oceans, where it may be drunk by sea creatures, or flowing into the farm land or just fields where it may ruin perfectly good soil. Not only does this damage the fish and ocean environment but it damages the human environment by ruining the economy. After the East India Tsunami the sea exports coming from East India took a hit of 30%. This was mainly because consumers were afraid the fish would be contaminated by the thousands of dead bodies which were washed out to sea.

Drawbacks Tsunamis are very common off the coast of Japan. They can be caused by a number of different things. Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean near Asia because of the position of the tectonic plates and the topography of the ocean floor. The number one cause of tsunamis is underwater earthquakes. They can also be caused by other sudden movements, underwater landslides, and large meteorite impacts.

How Tsunamis work The most common causes of tsunamis are underwater earthquakes. A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series that behave much like the waves rippling out from a stone dropped in a pond. Each wave can last five to 15 minutes, and the danger can last for hours after the initial wave arrives.

Samoa tsunami A powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the South Pacific between Samoa and American Samoa around dawn today, sending terrified residents fleeing for higher ground as a tsunami swept ashore, flattening at least one village. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.