Tsunamis

The 2011 tsunami did not significantly impact San Diego; it mostly affected countries in the Pacific region like Japan and some parts of the U.S. West Coast. The tsunami arrived at various times in different locations but did not cause significant damage in San Diego.

Actually a tsunami is not really a wave in the normal sense. A wave is a localized region of distrurbance the propagates through the water. Typical storm waves, which can of course get quite big, are really just very localized regions where the water is humped up a bit above the surrounding level. In the direction the wave is travelling, that raised region of water is only a few feet long even in a big storm, and if the wind is strong it might get quite large. Typically waves get bigger as they approach shore since the leading edge of wave starts to slow down and the tail end catches up and the height of the wave appears to increase. These can get quite large, but the total volume of water is not huge and so the wave will crash onto the shore and perhaps do some damage, but generally will just roll some limited distance up the beach.A tsunami is completely different. This is due usually to an earthquake which lifts a huge area of groung under the sea and causes the level of the sea often over many miles to suddenly rise. Now imagine that you were standing on the beach and the entire level of the sea went up by 3 feet. The sea would advance onto the land till it reached the point where the land was about 3 feet higher. In coastal regions the land can be very flat and this might be many miles inland. Some tsunamis are only a few inches tall and don't do much damage. If the earthquake is very violent or the water tries to flow into a restricted area like a bay, then the leading edge of the disturbance can get quite violent and large and like any disturbance on water it will start to build up as it flows into shallower water. If you look on the Internet at the movies of the tsunami in Thailand in 2004 you see some cases where the water has built up into a wave and other examples where it just appears to be flowing rather gently but what is unique about the tsunami is that once it starts, it just will not stop flowing in until everything is flooded.So you can see that it is not the height of the wave that defines a tsunami. If you want to get really technical, it is depth of the disturbance and its wavelength that really determines a tsunami. Storm waves are very short wavelengths whose effects are really just biggle ripples on the surface whereas tsunamis are very, very long wavelengths and often correspond to whole sections of the ocean being displaced all the way from the surface to the ocean floor. It is like a whole section of ocean being lifted up.

The tsunami has hit the East side of Japan, and will also hit Hawaii (with great impact with waves up to 2.1m) and the East coast of the rest of United States (in for instance California). Other places like Taiwan, Philipines, New Zealand might also be affected.

There is no way for a tsunami wave to affect any place in the central valley of California. The wave would have to travel into the San Francisco Bay first, when, upon doing so, it will be truncated on both sides by the narrow passage that the waves that actually do make it though will quickly disperse into a total water level rise of a few centimeters AT MOST. This water level rise will not be able to raise the water level of the estuary region at all, and thus no water can disperse into the higher elevations of the central valley.

No, Tsunami is not a city in Japan. A tsunami is a natural disaster caused by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions that lead to massive sea waves. Tsunami waves can cause significant damage to coastal areas.

Massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake happened off coast of Japan on Friday, March 11th 2011 at 2:46pm local time (05:46 GMT), which triggered the tsunami that hit Japan a few minutes later.

The first waves hit Hawaii about 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) later that day.

The tallest tsunami ever recorded was at Lituya Bay, Alaska. July 7th, 1958, 1638 foot tall waves that were caused by a huge ice/rock fall. This is twice the size of the Eiffel Tower.

Further details: The highest naturally-occurring tsunami ever recorded occurred in Lituya Bay, a large inlet on the coast of Alaska. It is believed that an earthquake of either 7.9 or 8.3 on the Richter Scale, occurred along a nearby faultline, part of the Pacific Rim of Fire. Around 40 million cubic yards of dirt and glacier were shaken loose from a mountainside at the head of the Bay, resulting in a tsunami (series of waves), the highest of which reached over 500 metres. Although the only witnesses to the event were a couple of fishing boats, the height was able to be determined by scientists finding the high water mark, where the water reached its highest point on the nearby land.

It was fortunate that the area was uninhabited, or else the effects could have been even more devastating. Higher tsunamis are believed to have occurred without human witnesses, so their heights have not been recorded.

alot unfortunately i don't quite know but I'm guess around 5,000

it was a very bad tsunami indeed

the earthquake was around 8.5 the shortly after (a few days) there was another at round about 6.1 which wasn't too bad but the second one didn't start a tsunami fortunately!

The tsunami that hit Hawaii on March 11, 2011, generated waves up to 6.9 feet high. The size of tsunamis can vary depending on factors like the intensity of the earthquake that triggers them and the local geography.

There have been no reports of a recent tsunami hitting Misawa, Japan. Tsunamis are rare events but are always a possibility due to the seismic activity in the region. It is important for residents to stay prepared and informed about evacuation procedures in case of a tsunami warning.

Undoubtedly. Tsunamis have, and will continue to affect Western Australia. Although recent research by the University of New South Wales in Sydney has shown that 85% of the 145 tsunamis that have hit Australia in the past 130 years have occurred along the eastern coast, Western Australia has certainly been affected. The largest tsunami to hit Australia occurred on the northwestern coast at Cape Leveque in August 1977. This tsunami was 6m in height, but no one was killed. The second-largest recorded tsunami to hit Australia's shores hit the northwest coast in June 1994, around Broome, King Bay, Onslow and Carnarvon. In some coastal areas, fish and other ocean creatures were carried inland for 300 metres.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami itself is given various names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Asian Tsunami, Indonesian Tsunami, and Boxing Day Tsunami. The earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 230,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were the hardest hit.

See below for a link to a list of all the expected landing times for the tsunami, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Note from the source: This list gives estimated times of arrival for locations along the North American Pacific coast from a tsunami generated at the given source location. THE LISTING OF A TSUNAMI ARRIVAL TIME BELOW DOES NOT INDICATE A WAVE IS IMMINENT. The listed arrival time is the initial wave arrival. Tsunamis can be dangerous for many hours after arrival, and the initial wave is not necessarily the largest.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake at sea rocked Japan, causing a massive tsunami with waves up to 30 feet high. The quake happened when one of the earth's plates slid under another, displacing a large amount of water, which caused the tsunami.

Damage from fire and flooding was extensive. The death toll as of March 12 is still uncertain but is over 10,000.

A tsunami can cause a whirlpool by the powerful force of the incoming water creating swirling currents as it flows over uneven terrain or through narrow channels. This swirling motion can persist after the tsunami has passed, forming a whirlpool effect due to the water's energy and the shape of the underwater topography.

Although large tsunami waves from Japan's earthquake hit Hawaii with some force, there are no reported fatalities as a result.

There was one reported death in California, from an observer being swept out to sea by the tsunami wave.

If people are diving when a tsunami hits the ocean, they may not immediately feel the effects due to the depth and distance underwater. However, as the wave approaches shore, it can create strong currents that can be dangerous for divers as they resurface. It is important for divers to stay calm and follow safety protocols to avoid being caught in dangerous situations.

Yes, Okinawa experiences earthquakes due to its location along the tectonic boundary in the region. However, severe earthquakes are less common on the island compared to other areas in Japan.

When the waves first spread out from the earthquake's epicentre, they travelled at up to 800 kilometers per hour (500 mph). As tsunami waves approach the shore, their speed decreases, so by the time the 2004 tsunami reached land, the waves weren't going much faster than normal waves. They were travelling at about 1 kilometer per minute, which is about 60 kph or 37 mph. The subsequent force, together with the height and speed of the wave and the volume of water in it caused the damage to the land. Then when that same water retreated it sucked many people out to sea where many of them drowned.

Any coastal port/ city (as well as some inland ones), are always vulnerable to a tsunami.

While tsunamis which are generated by earthquakes are the most common (and these are in now well defined zones), not all tsunamis are generated by them.

Tsunami can also be generated by under sea landslides or meteorite impacts.

The 2011 Japan Tsunami did not directly hit Indonesia. The tsunami was generated by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan and primarily affected the Japanese coastline. Indonesia is located quite a distance away from the epicenter of the earthquake.

The tsunami first reached kauai at 3:27 Hawaii time on march 11 , 2011

While "tsunami" is primarily known as a natural disaster term for a series of ocean waves caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption, it is possible for it to be used as a person's name. People can choose unique or symbolic names for their children that might have personal meaning or connection.

No. The tsunami, or any tsunami that is likely to occur, can only affect coastal areas and will come no more than a few miles inland even over flat land. There are hundreds of miles of mountains between Utah and the coast.

There is only one event that could trigger a tsunami large enough to cross mountains: a missive impact from an asteroid or comet. But such an event has not happened in at least 65 million years and I'd bet a great deal that one will not happen in our lifetime.

Tsunamis can hit any location on earth that is close to a body of water and subject to earthquake activity.

Cambodia barely missed the devastating 9.0 Asian earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

See related link for Cambodia Tales Tsunami Discussion