Tsunamis are caused by displacement of large volumes of water, usually due to earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions or other seismic events. Tsunamis have long wavelengths and can travel at high speeds across oceans before slowing down and growing taller near coastlines, sometimes resembling a rapidly rising tide. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over 230,000 people across 14 countries due to the immense destructive power of tsunamis, which can devastate entire coastal areas through high-speed wall of water and dragging debris back out to sea. Modern technology has enabled the development of tsunami-proof buildings that are elevated on deep foundations and designed for easy water flow to withstand such events.

1. THE KILLER WAVE
by:- sricharan,10th cbse

2. WHAT IS TSUNAMI
• Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves,
because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than
appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead
initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason
they are often referred to as tidal waves. Tsunamis
generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging
from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave
train". Wave heights of tens of meters 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 over 230,000 people killed in 14
countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

3. Generation mechanisms
• The principal generation mechanism (or cause) of a
tsunami is the displacement of a substantial volume of
water or perturbation of the sea. This displacement of
water is usually attributed to either earthquakes, landslides,
volcanic eruptions, glacier melting's or more rarely by
meteorites and nuclear tests. The waves formed in this way
are then sustained by gravity. Tides do not play any part in
the generation of tsunamis.

4. Tsunami due to Earthquakes
• When there are earthquakes in sea bed or when there is
any sudden jerk in tectonic plates there is a rush of water
up due to this action water waves generate speed up to
500 km/h .When this waves is nearer to the shores its speed
suddenly decreases to 45km/h but the height of the
waves go up to 10m high .This is the killer wave called
tsunami. More the depth of the seas more destructive is
tsunami .

6. DEVASTATION BY TSUNAMI
• Tsunamis cause damage by two mechanisms: the smashing force of a
wall of water travelling at high speed, and the destructive power of a
large volume of water draining off the land and carrying a large amount
of debris with it, even with waves that do not look large.
• The reason for the Japanese name "harbour wave" is that sometimes a
village's fishermen would sail out, and encounter no unusual waves while
out at sea fishing, and come back to land to find their village
devastated by a huge wave.
• Not only the damages by wave on its way to the shore it brings large
stones , boats , etc. This can take many life's and can injure 1000’s of
people.

7. Scales of intensity and magnitude of
waves
• As with earthquakes, several attempts have been made to
set up scales of tsunami intensity or magnitude to allow
comparison between different events. One of the
common scale is ricther scale it contain variation from 1 to
10 each division has different effect.

8. Tsunami proof house
• Improving in technology has enabled man to build tsunami
proof houses which can reduce damage created to one’s
property one of the most common houses are built as
follows :-
1. Coastal homes are elevated
2. These are built in hydrodynamics structure which ensures
easy flow of water and protect homes from collapsing .
3. battery walls can be put .
4. There must be deep protection to the foundation of the
buildings.

9. Pictures of tsunami proof house

10. Detecting tsunami
• Only some machines have been introduced to detect
tsunami which mainly depend on satellites and sonar to
detect tsunami.

11. Many measures have been taken to reduce damage
created by tsunami. Government has been giving
education to the coastal people about the do’s and
don'ts during tsunami many boards have been put up
to warn the people before entering tsunami prone area

12. Tsunami as a weapon
• Scientists have been trying to use tsunami as a weapon
over countries during wars by creating a destructive
waves . This can be done by exploding nuclear weapons
in sea bead which creates destructive waves . This was first
tried by New Zealand Military Forces.