Sign Into Environment 911Do Tsunamis serve a purpose for the environment or do they just happen?
The word Tsunami comes from the Japanese word "harbour wave". Sometimes Tsunamis are incorrectly called "tidal waves". Tsunamis are not caused by the tides. Tidal waves are caused by the gravitational pull from the moon. Regular waves are caused by the wind and tsunamis are caused by sudden elevation of the plates making HUGE waves.
After the huge amount of destruction of life that tsunamis cause there is also massive physical damage to cities or land hit by a tsunami. Entire buildings are destroyed with one wave. Cars and boats are picked up like us picking up a toothpick. Boats are flung to shore, shattering in to millions of pieces. Parking meters actually have been bent to the ground. After a tsunami, towns look like a nuclear war zone. The damage to forests, land and vegetation is damaged to almost no repair. Salt water pollutes the freshwater supplies. Causing shortages of food and drinking water. Some plate movement plus water can equal serious damage to lives and cities.
Tsunamis can be formed in many different ways; all involving earths natural problems. Earthquakes and/or volcanic eruptions that occur under the sea can form tsunamis. Huge amounts of energy are released giving quick upward bottom movement. For example, when a volcanic eruption occurs, the oceans floor could be affected. The water would move very quickly upward for several hundred feet. When this affect happens huge amounts of seawater is pushed up and a wave is formed. Large earthquakes can lift thousands of square kilometers of sea floor causing huge waves. The Pacific Ocean is especially likely to get tsunamis as result of the large amount of undersea geological activity. Unfortunately there is no way of stopping tsunamis.
When you think of a tsunami you would usually think of a huge wave, and that can be right but sometimes tsunamis can be small... Well kind of. When in the open ocean some tsunamis can be at a small height of less than 1 meter (3 feet). Tsunamis can even be undetected before they reach the shallow water coasts. A large part of tsunamis has to involve the insanely large wavelength up to several hundred miles. The height and length may be the scary part to you but there is a tremendous amount of energy involved. However the energy involved, gives the waves their gigantic height. As the height of the wave crashes on the shore the next wave depends on the underwater surface features. Those waves can get up to 30 meters (100 feet) high, or more. There was once a gigantic wave estimated to be 64 meters (210 feet) in height back in 1737. It took place in Cape Lopatka, Kamchatka (NE Russia). I know that seems huge but that wasn't the largest tsunami. The largest ever recorded occurred in July of 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska. It was started by a huge rock and ice chunk falling into the water making a tsunami 500 meters long (1640 feet). So as you can see Tsunamis are huge and powerful!
We are going to leave you with a question. Do you think Tsunamis really serve a purpose for the environment or do they just happen? Maybe our world needs a little destruction to recuperate and start new life!
By OneTuffGeronimo and BlairElla
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