If you have JavaScript disabled in your browser, you will need to turn it on in order to use this Web Site. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis.
Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.
In the past, tsunamis have sometimes been referred to as tidal waves by the general public, and as seismic sea waves by the scientific community. But tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wave length in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour.