A tsunami (/(t)suːˈnɑːmi, (t)sʊˈ-/ (t)soo-NAH-mee, (t)suu-;[1][2][3][4] from Japanese: 津波, lit.

'harbour
wave',[5] pronounced [tsɯnami]) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a
large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and
other underwater explosions (including detonations, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and
other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.[6] Unlike
normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by
the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water
from a large event.

Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is far
longer.[7] Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly
rising tide.[8] For this reason, it is often referred to as a tidal wave,[9] although this usage is not favoured
by the scientific community because it might give the false impression of a causal relationship between
tides and tsunamis.[10] Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves, with periods ranging from minutes
to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train".[11] Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large
events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be
enormous, and they can affect entire ocean basins. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the
deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14
countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Ancient Greek historian Thucydides suggested in his 5th century BC History of the Peloponnesian
War that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes,[12][13] but the understanding of tsunamis
remained slim until the 20th century, and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research
include determining why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do.
This ongoing research is designed to help accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across oceans as
well as how tsunami waves interact with shorelines.

Terminology

Tsunami

Tsunami

"Tsunami" in kanji

Japanese name

Kanji 津波

showTranscriptions

The term "tsunami" is a borrowing from the Japanese tsunami 津波, meaning "harbour wave." For the
plural, one can either follow ordinary English practice and add an s, or use an invariable plural as in the
Japanese.[14] Some English speakers alter the word's initial /ts/ to an /s/ by dropping the "t," since English
does not natively permit /ts/ at the beginning of words, though the original Japanese pronunciation
is /ts/. The term has become commonly accepted in English, although its literal Japanese meaning is not
necessarily descriptive of the waves, which do not occur only in harbours.

Tidal wave

Tsunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia, December

Tsunamis are sometimes referred to as tidal waves.[15] This once-popular term derives from the most
common appearance of a tsunami, which is that of an extraordinarily high tidal bore. Tsunamis and tides
both produce waves of water that move inland, but in the case of a tsunami, the inland movement of
water may be much greater, giving the impression of an incredibly high and forceful tide. In recent years,
the term "tidal wave" has fallen out of favour, especially in the scientific community, because the causes
of tsunamis have nothing to do with those of tides, which are produced by the gravitational pull of the
moon and sun rather than the displacement of water. Although the meanings of "tidal" include
"resembling"[16] or "having the form or character of"[17] tides, use of the term tidal wave is discouraged
by geologists and oceanographers.

A 1969 episode of the TV crime show Hawaii Five-O entitled "Forty Feet High and It Kills!" used the
terms "tsunami" and "tidal wave" interchangeably.[18]

Seismic sea wave

The term seismic sea wave is also used to refer to the phenomenon because the waves most often are
generated by seismic activity such as earthquakes.[19] Prior to the rise of the use of the term tsunami in
English, scientists generally encouraged the use of the term seismic sea wave rather than tidal wave.
However, like tidal wave, seismic sea wave is not a completely accurate term, as forces other than
earthquakes—including underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, land or
ice slumping into the ocean, meteorite impacts, and the weather when the atmospheric pressure
changes very rapidly—can generate such waves by displacing water.[20][21]

Other terms

The use of the term tsunami for waves created by landslides entering bodies of water has become
internationally widespread in both scientific and popular literature, although such waves are distinct in
origin from large waves generated by earthquakes. This distinction sometimes leads to the use of other
terms for landslide-generated waves, including landslide-triggered tsunami, displacement wave, non-
seismic wave, impact wave, and, simply, giant wave.[22]

History

See also: List of tsunamis

Lisbon earthquake and tsunami in November 1755

While Japan may have the longest recorded history of tsunamis,[23][better source needed] the sheer destruction
caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami event mark it as the most devastating of its
kind in modern times, killing around 230,000 people.[24] The Sumatran region is also accustomed to
tsunamis, with earthquakes of varying magnitudes regularly occurring off the coast of the island.[25]

Tsunamis are an often underestimated hazard in the Mediterranean Sea and parts of Europe. Of
historical and current (with regard to risk assumptions) importance are the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and
tsunami (which was caused by the Azores–Gibraltar Transform Fault), the 1783 Calabrian earthquakes,
each causing several tens of thousands of deaths and the 1908 Messina earthquake and tsunami. The
tsunami claimed more than 123,000 lives in Sicily and Calabria and is among the deadliest natural
disasters in modern Europe. The Storegga Slide in the Norwegian Sea and some examples of tsunamis
affecting the British Isles refer to landslide and meteotsunamis, predominantly and less to earthquake-
induced waves.

As early as 426 BC the Greek historian Thucydides inquired in his book History of the Peloponnesian
War about the causes of tsunami, and was the first to argue that ocean earthquakes must be the
cause.[12][13] The oldest human record of a tsunami dates back to 479 BC, in the Greek colony of Potidaea,
thought to be triggered by an earthquake. The tsunami may have saved the colony from an invasion by
the Achaemenid Empire.[13]

The cause, in my opinion, of this phenomenon must be sought in the earthquake. At the point where its
shock has been the most violent the sea is driven back, and suddenly recoiling with redoubled force,
causes the inundation. Without an earthquake I do not see how such an accident could happen.[26]

The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (Res Gestae 26.10.15–19) described the typical sequence of
a tsunami, including an incipient earthquake, the sudden retreat of the sea and a following gigantic
wave, after the 365 AD tsunami devastated Alexandria.[27][28]

Causes
The principal generation mechanism of a tsunami is the displacement of a substantial volume of water or
perturbation of the sea.[29] This displacement of water is usually caused by earthquakes,[30][31][32] but can
also be attributed to landslides, volcanic eruptions, glacier calvings or more rarely by meteorites and
nuclear tests.[33][34] However, the possibility of a meteorite causing a tsunami is debated.[35]

Seismicity

Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying
water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the Earth's
crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed
area is displaced from its equilibrium position.[36] More specifically, a tsunami can be generated
when thrust faults associated with convergent or destructive plate boundaries move abruptly, resulting
in water displacement, owing to the vertical component of movement involved. Movement on normal
(extensional) faults can also cause displacement of the seabed, but only the largest of such events
(typically related to flexure in the outer trench swell) cause enough displacement to give rise to a
significant tsunami, such as the 1977 Sumba and 1933 Sanriku events.[37][38]

•
Drawing of tectonic plate boundary before earthquake

•
Over-riding plate bulges under strain, causing tectonic uplift.

•
Plate slips, causing subsidence and releasing energy into water.

•
The energy released produces tsunami waves.

Tsunamis have a small wave height offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometres
long, whereas normal ocean waves have a wavelength of only 30 or 40 metres),[39] which is why they
generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 300 millimetres (12 in) above
the normal sea surface. They grow in height when they reach shallower water, in a wave
shoaling process described below. A tsunami can occur in any tidal state and even at low tide can still
inundate coastal areas.

On April 1, 1946, the 8.6 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred with a maximum Mercalli intensity of
VI (Strong). It generated a tsunami which inundated Hilo on the island of Hawaii with a 14-metre high
(46 ft) surge. Between 165 and 173 were killed. The area where the earthquake occurred is where
the Pacific Ocean floor is subducting (or being pushed downwards) under Alaska.

Examples of tsunamis originating at locations away from convergent boundaries include Storegga about
8,000 years ago, Grand Banks in 1929, and Papua New Guinea in 1998 (Tappin, 2001). The Grand Banks
and Papua New Guinea tsunamis came from earthquakes which destabilised sediments, causing them to
flow into the ocean and generate a tsunami. They dissipated before travelling transoceanic distances.

The cause of the Storegga sediment failure is unknown. Possibilities include an overloading of the
sediments, an earthquake or a release of gas hydrates (methane etc.).

The 1960 Valdivia earthquake (Mw 9.5), 1964 Alaska earthquake (Mw 9.2), 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake (Mw 9.2), and 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (Mw9.0) are recent examples of powerful megathrust
earthquakes that generated tsunamis (known as teletsunamis) that can cross entire oceans. Smaller
(Mw 4.2) earthquakes in Japan can trigger tsunamis (called local and regional tsunamis) that can
devastate stretches of coastline, but can do so in only a few minutes at a time.

Landslides

The Tauredunum event was a large tsunami on Lake Geneva in 563 CE, caused by sedimentary deposits
destabilised by a landslide.

In the 1950s, it was discovered that tsunamis larger than had previously been believed possible can be
caused by giant submarine landslides. These large volumes of rapidly displaced water transfer energy at
a faster rate than the water can absorb. Their existence was confirmed in 1958, when a giant landslide
in Lituya Bay, Alaska, caused the highest wave ever recorded, which had a height of 524 metres
(1,719 ft).[40] The wave did not travel far as it struck land almost immediately. The wave struck three
boats—each with two people aboard—anchored in the bay. One boat rode out the wave, but the wave
sank the other two, killing both people aboard one of them.[41][42][43]

Another landslide-tsunami event occurred in 1963 when a massive landslide from Monte Toc entered
the reservoir behind the Vajont Dam in Italy. The resulting wave surged over the 262-metre (860 ft)-high
dam by 250 metres (820 ft) and destroyed several towns. Around 2,000 people died.[44][45] Scientists
named these waves megatsunamis.

Some geologists claim that large landslides from volcanic islands, e.g. Cumbre Vieja on La Palma (Cumbre
Vieja tsunami hazard) in the Canary Islands, may be able to generate megatsunamis that can cross
oceans, but this is disputed by many others.

In general, landslides generate displacements mainly in the shallower parts of the coastline, and there is
conjecture about the nature of large landslides that enter the water. This has been shown to
subsequently affect water in enclosed bays and lakes, but a landslide large enough to cause a
transoceanic tsunami has not occurred within recorded history. Susceptible locations are believed to be
the Big Island of Hawaii, Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands, La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, and Cumbre
Vieja on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands; along with other volcanic ocean islands. This is
because large masses of relatively unconsolidated volcanic material occurs on the flanks and in some
cases detachment planes are believed to be developing. However, there is growing controversy about
how dangerous these slopes actually are.[46]

Volcanic eruptions

Main article: Volcanic tsunami

Other than by landslides or sector collapse, volcanoes may be able to generate waves by pyroclastic
flow submergence, caldera collapse, or underwater explosions.[47] Tsunamis have been triggered by a
number of volcanic eruptions, including the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and the 2022 Hunga Tonga–
Hunga Ha'apai eruption. Over 20% of all fatalities caused by volcanism during the past 250 years are
estimated to have been caused by volcanogenic tsunamis.[48]

Debate has persisted over the origins and source mechanisms of these types of tsunamis, such as those
generated by Krakatoa in 1883,[48] and they remain lesser understood than their seismic relatives. This
poses a large problem of awareness and preparedness, as exemplified by the eruption and collapse
of Anak Krakatoa in 2018, which killed 426 and injured thousands when no warning was available.

It is still regarded that lateral landslides and ocean-entering pyroclastic currents are most likely to
generate the largest and most hazardous waves from volcanism;[49] however, field investigation of
the Tongan event, as well as developments in numerical modelling methods, currently aim to expand the
understanding of the other source mechanisms.[50][51]