What causes a tsunami?A tsunami is usually caused by a powerful earthquake under the ocean floor. This earthquake pushes a large volume of water to the surface, creating waves. These waves are the tsunami.

In the deep ocean these waves are small. As they approach the coast these waves get bigger and more dangerous. Tsunami waves can cause tremendous damage when they reach land.

A tsunami can also be triggered by a volcanic eruption, landslide, or other movements of the Earth’s surface.

HOW DO TSUNAMI'S IMPACT THE ENVIRONMENT?

Tsunamis impact the environment in many different ways. The first way that

they impact the environment is for animals, if they aren’t living in their

specific areas, they could die.  Also vegetation can be hurt in areas due to

saltwater intrusion. When strong waves hit coral reefs in the water, some of

it comes off. Lastly, due to saltwater invasions in the ground water,

Tsunami’s and other major floods have occurred.  For example, if a whale

or a dolphin is out at sea, a tsunami can’t hurt it. But, a fish close to shore

can be thrown out of the water and onto the beach.  The word “Tsunami” is

a Japanese word represented by two characters: Tsu and nami. 

 

 Tsu means harbour and nami means wave.  A tsunami can last for

SEVERAL hours. The biggest wave recorded was it can be as great as 10

meters, even 30 meters in some cases, and it can move inland for several

hundred meters. Also Tsunami’s are very dangerous to be around, so if you

are around one go to the highest point near you and stay there until further

notice. Secondly, when an earthquake shook the floor beneath the Indian

Ocean in December 2004, resulting tidal waves devastated the shores of

Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries. This had left

approximately 300,000 people dead and damages. This tsunami was the

second largest Tsunami/earthquake recorded in the history. Also if you

know a friend that is near by you should go tell them to go somewhere

safe.

Detecting tsunami

How the detection process works

An undersea earthquake causes disturbance to both the sea floor

and body of ocean above it. Seismic waves (in red) travel much

faster than tsunami waves away from the earthquake source.

Earthquakes are detected through a network of seismic monitoring

stations. Any resulting tsunami are then verified by sea-level

monitoring stations and deep-ocean tsunami detection buoys. The

seismic monitoring stations can determine the location and depth of

earthquakes that have the potential to cause tsunami. The sea-level

gauges and deep-ocean detection buoys measure any abnormal

changes in sea level to verify if a tsunami has been generated. 

Deep-ocean tsunami detection buoys

Deep-ocean tsunami detection buoys are one of two types of

instruments used by the Bureau to confirm the existence of tsunami

generated by undersea earthquakes. These buoys observe and

record changes in sea-level out in deep ocean. This enhances the

capability for early detection and real time reporting of tsunami before

they reach land. These systems are capable of measuring sea-level

changes of less than a millimetre in the deep ocean.

A typical tsunami buoy system comprises of two components, the

pressure sensor anchored to the sea floor and the surface buoy. The

sensor on the sea floor measures the change in height of the water

column above by measuring associated changes in the water

pressure. This water column height is communicated to the surface

buoy by acoustic telemetry and then relayed via satellite to the

JATWC.

Landslide

This article is about the geological phenomenon. For other uses,

see Landslide (disambiguation).

Computer simulation of a "slump" landslide in San Mateo County, California

(USA) in January 1997

A landslide, also known as a landslip (see also mudslide), is a geological

phenomenon which includes a wide range of violent ground movements,

such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which

can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. Although the

action ofgravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there

are other contributing factors affecting the original slope stability. Typically,

pre-conditional factors build up specific sub-surface conditions that make

the area/slope prone to failure, whereas the actual landslide often requires

a trigger before being released.

contingency plan

Part of the Business terms glossary:

What is a contingency plan?

In business continuity and risk management, a contingency plan is a process that

prepares an organization to respond coherently to an unplanned event. The

contingency plan can be also used as an alternative for action if expected results

fail to materialize. A contingency plan is sometimes referred to as "Plan B."