Witness to Disaster: Tsunamis. National Kids Geographic

      

      Tsunamis

      WITNESS TO DISASTER

      In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong, nothing can surpass it.

      —Lao Tzu,

       Chinese Philosopher

      Tsunamis

      WITNESS TO DISASTER

      JUDITH BLOOM FRADIN & DENNIS BRINDELL FRADIN

      Text copyright © 2008 Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin

      Published by the National Geographic Society.

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      ISBN: 978-1-4263-0980-9

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      Staff for This Book

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      Photo Credits

       Cover, John Russell/ AFP/ Getty Images; Back, Bettmann/ Corbis; spine, N. Silcock/ Shutterstock; 2-3, Rick Doyle/ Corbis; 5, Hermann M. Fritz, Georgia Institute of Technology; 6, Jose C. Borrero, University of Southern California; 8 both, IKONOS satellite imagery by GeoEye/ CRISP-Singapore; 9, AFP/ Getty Images; 10 both, Joanne Davis/ Polaris; 11 left & right, Joanne Davis/ Polaris; 11 bottom, Mark Pearson; 12, PH3 Tyler J. Clements, United States Navy; 13, Louis Evans, Curtin University of Technology; 14, Image: S. Lombeyda, Caltech Center for Advanced Computing Research; V. Hjorleifsdottir and J. Tromp, Caltech Seismological Laboratory; R. Aster, Reprinted with permission from Science Volume 308, Number 5725 (20 May 2005); 15, U.S. Geological Survey; 16, U.S. Geological Survey; 18, O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, Oregon State University; 19, Bretwood Higman, University of Washington; 20, NASA; 21 both, Koji Sasahara/ Associated Press; 22, Jose C. Borrero, University of Southern California; 24, Pacific Tsunami Museum; 27, Naval Historical Foundation; 29, Used with permission from the Stars and Stripes. © 1964, 2008 Stars and Stripes; 30, Corbis; 32, NOAA National Data Buoy Center; 33, NOAA West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center; 34, NOAA National Data Buoy Center; 35, Aaron Favila/ Associated Press; 36, NOAA National Data Buoy Center; 37, David Heikkila/ iStockphoto.com; 38, Tim Laman/ National Geographic Image Collection; 40-41, Adam Powell/ Taxi/ Getty Images; 42, Tatyana Makeyeva/ AFP/ Getty Images; 43, U.S. Geological Survey; 45, Bazuki Muhammad/ Reuters/ Corbis.

      Version: 2017-07-06

      CONTENTS

      Introduction: Japan Tsunami

      Chapter 1: “Like Niagara Falls Moving Towards Us”: Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004

      Chapter 2: “A Wave 800 Feet Tall”: Tsunami Science

      Chapter 3: “Everything Had Become Sea”: Some Historic Tsunamis

      Chapter 4: “Out of the Blue”: Tsunami Warnings and Safety

      Glossary

      Further Reading and Research

      Bibliography

      Interviews by the Authors

      Acknowledgments

      Index

      Introduction: Japan Tsunami

      On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, a humungous earthquake struck northeastern Japan. It measured 9.0 on the magnitude scale. Only three larger quakes have shaken our planet in the past century.

      The earthquake occurred when two large chunks of our planet’s crust fractured beneath the sea off the coast of Japan. The rupture thrust part of the ocean floor under the island nation, dropping its coastline two feet while lifting the land beneath the sea. This double motion caused the Pacific Ocean waters to slosh like soup in a bowl, creating massive waves called tsunami.

      Because Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone places on our planet, the Japanese people are well prepared for both earthquakes and tsunamis. Homes and large buildings in Japan are built to withstand large quakes. A state-of-the-art tsunami warning system is in place, and Japanese children and adults undergo regular drills to make sure they know what to do during such disasters.

      But nothing could prepare the residents of northeastern Japan for the gigantic waves that hit their coast an hour and a half later. Walls of water as tall as 30 feet (9 meters)—the height of a three-story building—slammed into coastal Japanese cities at the speed of a jet airplane. The water flooded areas more than five miles inland, killing tens of thousands of residents.

      The power of the water was so intense that tsunami warnings were issued for coastal Hawaii, 3,850 miles (6,200 kilometers) from Japan. Waves taller than three feet (one meter) high hit the Hawaiian coast seven and a half hours after the quake struck Japan.

      Crescent City, California, lies 4,763 miles (7,700 kilometers) from the coast of Japan. Nevertheless, ten hours after the earthquake, an eight-foot (two-meter) tsunami wave slammed into that harbor city, destroying a pier and reducing dozens of boats to rubble.

      Sophisticated