Nature and Science, 2011;9(7)

http://www.sciencepub.net/nature

Tsunami: meaning and causes; a theoretical approach.

Abdulsalam , Nasir Naeem
Department of Physics, University Of Abuja, P.M.B.117, Abuja, Nigeria
[email protected]
Abstract: Tsunami is the Japanese word that describe a harbour wave. Tsunamis are natural catastrophes caused
by some geological processes. All tsunami are caused by the sudden displacement of large volumes of water. All are
the result of violent events with enough power to displace large volumes very rapidly. However, tsunami may be
caused by events that are not local to the tsunami site. Because the waves have been generated by huge releases of
energy and they travel so effectively through the deep ocean. Some tsunamis are caused by events that literally
happen on the other side of the world. Historically, tsunamis have been a constant threat to humans. This paper
discusses the geological processes that can cause tsunamis.
[Abdulsalam , Nasir Naeem. Tsunami: meaning and causes; a theoretical approach. Nature and Science
2011;9(7):154-157]. (ISSN: 1545-0740). http://www.sciencepub.net.
Keywords: earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, meteors.
1. Introduction
Tsunami is the Japanese word that describes a
harbour wave. According to Lapidus (1990). tsunami
is the gravity-wave system that follows any shortduration , large scale disturbance of the free sea
surface. Their cause are related with geographical
process such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic
eruptions and meteoritic, asteroids and comets impacts.
A tsunami travels outward from the source region
as a series of waves. Waves velocity reach speed of
900km/hr over the ocean. Tsunamis are usually small
and bearly noticed in deep ocean, but the waves become
large and cause damage when they approach coastal
areas. As waves approach the coast line, the speed of
wave decreases as they are form shallower within water
depth(Lapidus, 1990). Tsunamis can travel virtually
unnoticed through the ocean because the wave height
may be very small but as soon as they reach nearby
shore the wave height increases. Destruction from
tsunamis is the direct result of inundation, wave impact
on structure and erosion.
The scientific community is devoting extreme
care and attention to all natural hazards that can destroy
the welfare human kind. Tsunami despite being rarer
catastrophic event, as regarded as a major threat.
Extensive study of tsunami hazard is currently going on
in many part of the world, although tsunamis occur
mainly in the pacific. The research we are conducting
will, hopefully, contribute to a broader knowledge of
tsunami and their environmental consequences.
Tsunami is a wave in the ocean but it is very
different to normal waves.
Tsunamis have very long wavelength. Crest to
crest they measure between 10 and 500km and they
travel through the ocean at more than 700km/hr. Some
time there appears to be just one wave but often there
are multiple travelling a few minute apart . Discussing

the meaning and causes of tsunami has been the aim of

this paper.
2. Causes of Tsunamis
A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance
that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium
position. Unfortunately tsunamis have been given
numerous names in the past that are misleading. Even
the word tsunami meaning harbour wave is misleading.
All tsunami are caused by the sudden
displacement of large volumes of water. All are the
result of violent events with enough power to displace
large volumes very rapidly. However, tsunami may be
caused by events that are not local to the tsunami site.
Because the waves have been generated by huge
releases of energy and they travel so effectively through
the deep ocean. Some tsunami are caused by events that
literally happen on the other side of the world.
Historically, tsunamis have been a constant threat to
humans.
Geological processes such as earthquakes,
landslides, volcanic eruptions and meteoritic impacts
can cause tsunamis.
2.1 Earthquakes
Earthquakes are the main source of tsunami,
when earthquake occur beneath the sea, the water above
is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are
formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under
the influence of gravity, attempts to gain its equilibrium.
When a large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a
tsunami can be created, large vertical movements of the
earths crust can occur at any faulted plate boundaries,
but earthquake on the continental side of the
subduction trench are particularly effective generating
tsunamis (Furumoto & Fukao 1985).

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For distant tsunamis has travelled far from the

origin of the earthquake, the magnitude of the
earthquake is a good measure of the size of the tsunami.
For local tsunamis, however, more knowledge than the
magnitude is needed to calculate the final run-up of the
tsunami.
Earthquake sensitive area in the world and
tsunamigenic areas are related.
2.2 Landslides
We can consider two major types of landslide
that can create tsunamis underwater and coaster
landslides. Several mechanisms can trigger these
landslides: small earthquakes, collapse of volcanoes or
part of it and erosion in submarines slopes. In the
coastal areas slopes are subject to several erosion forces
such as rainfall, storms and especially sea waves. The
slumps generally follow greater than usual storms,
which remove substantial amounts of material and lead
to a sudden decrease in the stability of the slope (Bolt
et al., 1975). This leads to a considerable quantity of
rocks, sand and debris to fall over the ocean causing a
perturbation of the sea surface and eventually causing a
tsunami.
2.3Volcanoes
Volcanoes eruption above the sea level, due to
the collapse of the volcanic crater, or the collapse of one
of its flanks, can generate rock falls, debris flow and
rocks-slide that reach the sea causing a tsunami. This is
only been discussed, so far, in the context of volcanic
islands. But the major volcanic generating tsunamis
sources are under water eruptions. Not only the
displacement of materials in the slope of the volcano but
also the release of gas can provoke a tsunami.
The eruption itself can cause a small earthquake
that can trigger a tsunami. volcanoes with plinian
activity characterised by huge destructive explosions
and consequent collapse of the caldera may give origin
to giant waves (Tinti, 1990).
Historically, there are many examples of volcanic
tsunamis, however the santorini eruption, not only for
its social and cultural importance, but also for its
geographical proximity with the Iberian Peninsula,
deserves special reference. The collapse of the caldera
of the volcano Santorini during a major eruption
3500BP caused a huge tsunami which inundated
surrounding islands and is recorded in the lore of many
circum-Mediterranean cultures (Kastens & Cita 1981).
2.4 Meteors
The earth is subject to bombardment from space.
Asteroids, comets and meteorites, can cause
catastrophic events if they collide with earth. If a major
meteorite collides with the earth in an urban area, the
devastation would be enormous, but the biggest

devastation would be caused if it falls over the ocean.

tsunami is probably the most serious form of damage
caused by stony asteroids with diameters between about
200 m and 2 km. (Hills & Goda, 1998).
3. Other Causes of Tsunami
Human-made tsunamis are also reported.
Especially in the 60s with the advent of nuclear tests,
there are reference to small tsunamis caused by
underwater nuclear tests explosion in the pacific. (Bolt
et. al., 1975).
Atmospheric processes can also generate
tsunamis. Tsunami like waves generated by a rapidly
moving atmospheric pressure front moving over a
shallow sea at about the same speed as the waves,
allowing them to couple (www.shoa.cl/ocean/itic/).
There is also a theory that astronomical
alignments can trigger geophysical events, such as
earthquakes, through an increase in the gravitational
force (www.usgs.gov).
4. The Behaviours of Tsunami
A tsunami can be divided into three phases, the
generation, the propagation to the coast and run-up at
the shoreline.
Once the tsunami is formed, the wave system
closely resembles that which is produced by throwing a
stone into pond. (lapidus,1990). The wave
configuration is axi-symetric and consist of concentric
rings of crests and troughs. The front expands at the
velocity of c= in which g is gravitational acceleration
and h is the water depth. Within the several minutes
after the generation process, the initial tsunami is split
into a tsunami that travels out to the generation process,
the initial tsunami is split into a tsunami that travels out
to the deep ocean (distant tsunami) and another tsunami
that travels towards the nearby coast (local tsunami)
(Lapidus, 1990). Several events happen as the local
tsunami travels over the continental slope. The most
obvious one is that the amplitude increases. The
tsunamis energy flux, which is dependent on both its
wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant.
Consequently, as the tsunamis speed diminishes as it
travels into shallower water, its height grows. Because
of this shoaling effect, a tsunami, imperceptible at sea,
may grow to be several meters in height near the coast.
Physical laws can explain the wave propagation.
If the tsunami wavelength is much smaller than the
scale of velocity heterogeneity, i.e., the depth change,
then we can apply the geometrical ray theory of optics.
(Satake, 1999). Moreover, their propagation path is
sensitive to the ocean bathymetry that, analogously to
an optical lens, may focus or defocus the tsunami rays,
thereby increasing or decreasing the wave amplitude
(Tinti, 1990)

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As the tsunamis wave travels from the deepwater, continental slope region to near-shore region,
tsunami run-up occurs. Run-up is a measurement of the
height of the water onshore observed above a reference
sea level.
After run-up, part of the tsunami energy is
reflected back to the open ocean. In addition, a tsunami
can generate a particular type of wave called edge
waves that travel back and forth, parallel to shore. These
effects results in successive arrivals of waves at a
particular point on the coast rather than a single wave.
Because of the complicated behaviour of tsunami near
he coast, the first run-up of a tsunami is often not the
largest (emphasising the importance of not returning the
beach several hours after a tsunami hits).
A strange behaviour occurs in the sea close to
shore areas. Different sets of conditions apply in
shallow water near the shore, when a tsunami is
inundating the coast. There are several terms that are
used to describe this phenomenon. The one to use
depends on circumstances (e.g., whether the tsunami is
in a bay) and one to use depends on the circumstances
(e.g., whether the tsunami is in bay) and on personal
preference. The terms negative wave, drawdown
and withdrawal are most often used to describe this
type of initial onset. Less formal are the terms
waterline receding and bay emptying. The
underlying reason for this effect is that both offshore
landslides and subduction zone earthquakes create a
negative wave on the shoreward side of the bottom
deformation. This negative wave propagates to shore
and produces the drawdown.(GITEC-21995).
In coastal areas the devastation can be enormous.
The destruction in infrastructures caused by tsunamis is
caused by tsunami is due to drag and flotation forces
associated with the waves strong induced currents and
floating debris (Tinti, 1990). The tsunamis tend to
decrease with distance from the source point.
5. Tsunami Classification
The two most important aspects that characterise
tsunamis are the magnitude and the intensity.
In terms of magnitude scales, tsunamis can be
divided as follows. The traditional magnitude scale is
so-called Imamura-Iida (m). The value is approximately
equal to m=log2h, where h is maximum run-up height in
meters.
This scale is similar to the earthquake intensity
scale, and is especially convenient for old tsunamis
from which no instrumental records exist. Hataori (1979)
extended the Imamura-Iida m scale to include far-field
tsunami data. He also considered the effect of distance.
Another magnitude scale, Mt, called tsunami magnitude,
is defined and assigned for many earthquake by Abe.
The definition of Mt for a Trans-Pacific tsunami is (Abe,
1979): Mt = log H+ C + 9.1 and for a regional tsunami

(100km<? <3500km) tsunami is (Abe, 1981): Mt = log

H + log? + 5.8, where H is the maximum amplitude on
tide gauges in meters, C is a distance factor depending
on a combination of the source and the observation
points and is the actual distance in km. The above
formulas where calibrated with the moment magnitude
3 scale, Mw, of earthquakes.
For tsunami intensity there are two different
scales. Soloviev (1970) pointed out that Imamura-Iidas
scale is more like an earthquake intensity scale rather
than a magnitude. He also distinguished the maximum
tsunami height h and the mean tsunami height h. He
then defined tsunami intensity I as I = log2 (h). Sieberg
tsunami intensity scale, a descriptive tsunami intensity
intensity scale (Ambraseys, 1962), describes tsunamis
from light tsunamis (level 1) to disastrous tsunamis
(level 6) based on the physical destruction caused by
tsunamis.
Conclusion
Tsunamis are natural catastrophes caused by
some geological processes (e.g. earthquakes, landslides,
volcanoes, meteors) that disturb a mass of water
creating a series of waves. The waves formed, after the
geological trigger, travel towards coastal areas and will
increase in height with the decrease of their velocity,
causing destruction when the tsunami reaches the
shoreline.
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