However, the waves are gaining speed and size as they rush toward the coast. They are traveling nearly 400 miles per hour, far faster than allows residents on the coast to be evacuated. When they hit the beach, they're higher than Corvallis City Hall. And it's not just a huge single wave but a series of waves smashing into buildings and sucking debris back into the water only to toss it again at the shoreline. People caught in the waves are tossed far inland, hotels and homes are ravaged, sandy cliffs fall into the sea.
Tsunamis are mysterious creatures, waves both deadly and unexpected.
Researchers around the world, from seismologists to civil engineers, are exploring the science behind such phenomena. The grant will expand the current Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory on campus, which was originally created to study the effects of waves on scale models. The rectangular basin will be expanded, but a majority of the money will go toward hooking up numerous cameras and microphones to make the laboratory accessible online. Researchers in other locations can run experiments from a distance. Long-distance research is the key to the project, which will eventually allow scientists, teachers and students worldwide to watch experiments in real time, hearing and seeing every action and being able to replay them instantly or view them later.