How old is the oldest tsunami?

History of the Tsunami According to the National Geophysical Data Centre, the first recorded tsunami occurred off the coast of Syria over four thousand years ago. When the island volcano of Krakatoa, Indonesia, exploded in 1883, tsunamis swept as far away as the English Channel.

eden.uktv.co.uk - Tsunami Facts | Earth | Nature - Eden Channel

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They're unpredictable, travel faster than commercial jets and can carry 20 tonne rocks as far as 180 metres inland. Get the lowdown on these killer waves. Tsunamis, from the Japanese meaning "harbour wave" and sometimes called tidal waves, have nothing whatsoever to do with tides.

An illustration of an earthquake-induced tsunami

Tsunamis are most often generated by an earthquake induced movement of the ocean floor, although volcanic eruptions, underwater landslides and explosions, glacier carvings and meteor strikes can also produce them. Despite most fictional representations depicting tsunamis that look like a standard breaking wave, this is not reality. Due to their increased wavelength, tsunamis are actually resemble a sudden surge, as if the tide was rapidly rising.

History of the Tsunami

According to the National Geophysical Data Centre, the first recorded tsunami occurred off the coast of Syria over four thousand years ago. When the island volcano of Krakatoa, Indonesia, exploded in 1883, tsunamis swept as far away as the English Channel. On the facing shores of Sumatra and Java, a tsunami caused such devastation and loss of life that one area was never resettled. It is now the Ujung Kulon Nature Reserve. On 9 July 1958, a huge landslide caused a tsunami in the fjord-shaped Lituya bay, Alaska. It was the worlds tallest recorded tsunami with a wave 524 metres in height.

Aftermath of a tsunami

Tsunamis Around the World

On 26th December 2004, a tsunami travelled 375 miles in 75 minutes (faster than a commercial jet) before hitting the coast of Indonesia. The resulting disaster left a death toll of over 220,000 people. Its origin was a colossal nine magnitude earthquake deep under the Indian Ocean. A tsunami is recorded on Australias coastline every two years, but most are small and classified as low risk. Although Japan doesn't see as many, with 195 incidents over 1313 years, it is probably the place that regularly experiences the most severe tsunamis. 90% of all tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean but Europe has been struck too. In October 1979, 23 people died when the coast of Nice, France, was hit by tsunami. On 11th March 2011 the most powerful Japanese earthquake on record triggered a tsunami that swept away a vast swathe of coastline, killing thousands of people. The immense power of tsunamis was etched onto the global consciousness, with social media and 24-hour news allowing the world to see the scale of the disaster first hand.

Death and Destruction

The majority of deaths associated with tsunamis are related to drowning, but injuries from the impact of being sucked into large debris (trees, buildings and rocks) are also a major cause of death. One Indonesian woman spent five days in the Indian Ocean clinging to a sago palm before being rescued. Unbelievably, the 18 week-old foetus she was carrying also survived.

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Causes of Earthquakes in General Induced Earthquakes. Induced quakes are caused by human activity, like tunnel construction, filling reservoirs and implementing geothermal or fracking projects. Volcanic Earthquakes. Volcanic quakes are associated with active volcanism. ... Collapse Earthquakes.

seismo.ethz.ch - Causes of Earthquakes in General - Swiss Seismological Service

The Earth’s crust consists of seven large lithospheric plates and numerous smaller plates. These plates move towards each other (a convergent boundary), apart (a divergent boundary) or past each other (a transform boundary). Earthquakes are caused by a sudden release of stress along faults in the earth's crust. The continuous motion of tectonic plates causes a steady build-up of pressure in the rock strata on both sides of a fault until the stress is sufficiently great that it is released in a sudden, jerky movement. The resulting waves of seismic energy propagate through the ground and over its surface, causing the shaking we perceive as earthquakes.

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