The highest recorded wave in the world. The largest tsunami in human history

This is how eyewitness Howard J. Ulrich, who was there on his yacht Edri, described these events. She entered the waters of Lituya Bay at about eight in the evening and anchored at a depth of nine meters in a small cove on the southern coast. Howard says that suddenly the yacht began to rock violently. He ran out onto the deck and saw how in the northeastern part of the bay the rocks began to move due to the earthquake and a huge block of rock began to fall into the water. About two and a half minutes after the earthquake, he heard a deafening sound from the destruction of rock. “We definitely saw that the wave came from Gilbert Bay, just before the earthquake ended. But at first it was not a wave. At first it was more like an explosion, as if the glacier was splitting into pieces. The wave grew from the surface of the water, at first it was almost invisible, who would have thought that then the water would rise to a height of half a kilometer.” Ulrich said that he observed the entire process of development of the wave, which reached their yacht in a very short time - something like two and a half to three minutes, from the time it could first be noticed. Since we didn't want to lose the anchor, we pulled out the entire anchor chain (about 72 meters) and started the engine. Halfway between the northeastern edge of Lituya Bay and Cenotaf Island, a thirty-meter-high wall of water could be seen that stretched from one shore to the other. When the wave approached the northern part of the island, it split into two parts, but after passing the southern part of the island, the wave became one again. It was smooth, only there was a small ridge on top. When this mountain of water approached our yacht, its front was quite steep, and its height was from 15 to 20 meters. Before the wave arrived at the place where our yacht was located, we did not feel any drop in water or other changes, with the exception of a slight vibration that was transmitted through the water from tectonic processes that began to operate during the earthquake. As soon as the wave approached us and began to lift our yacht, the anchor chain crackled violently. The yacht was carried towards the southern shore and then, on the reverse course of the wave, towards the center of the bay. The top of the wave was not very wide, from 7 to 15 meters, and the trailing front was less steep than the leading one. As the giant wave swept past us, the surface of the water returned to its normal level, but we could see a lot of turbulence swirling around the yacht, as well as erratic waves six meters high, which moved from one birch bay to another. These waves did not create any noticeable movement of water from the mouth of the bay to its northeastern part and back. After 25...30 minutes the surface of the bay calmed down. Near the banks one could see many logs, branches and uprooted trees. All this rubbish slowly drifted towards the center of Lituya Bay and towards its mouth. In fact, during the entire incident, Ulrich did not lose control of the yacht. When the Edri approached the entrance to the bay at 11 pm, a normal current could be observed there, which is usually caused by the daily ebb of ocean water. Lucky man. There are simply no other words... Or the Guardian Angel saved him, advising him to take the right actions...

The phenomenon of a tsunami is as old and indomitable as the ocean. Eyewitness accounts of terrible waves, passed from mouth to mouth, became legends over time, and written evidence began to appear approximately 2,000–2,500 years ago. Among the probable reasons for the disappearance of Atlantis, which occurred about 10,000 years ago, some researchers also name giant waves.

The word “tsunami” came to us from the Land of the Rising Sun. It is Japan that is most susceptible to tsunamis on the planet. She felt the grim consequences of the tsunami, which took many thousands of lives and caused enormous material damage. Tsunamis occur most often in the Pacific Ocean. In Russia, the Far Eastern coasts - Kamchatka, the Kuril and Commander Islands and, partially, Sakhalin - are subject to regular attacks by giant waves.

What is a tsunami? A tsunami is a giant wave that captures a huge amount of water, raising it to great heights. Such waves are found in oceans and seas.

Occurrence of a tsunami

What can cause ordinary water to transform into such a destructive natural phenomenon, endowed with truly hellish power?

Tsunamis are long and high waves generated as a result of a powerful impact on the entire thickness of water in the ocean or other body of water.

The common cause of tsunamis that bring disaster is the activity that occurs in the bowels of the Earth. For the most part, water monsters are provoked by underwater earthquakes, so the study of this destructive phenomenon became possible only after the science of seismology appeared. A direct relationship between the strength of the wave and the strength of the earthquake was recorded. This is also influenced by the depth at which the shock occurred. Thus, only waves generated by high-energy earthquakes with a magnitude equal to or greater than 8.0 have significant destructive power.

Observations show that tsunamis occur when a section of the sea or ocean surface suddenly moves vertically after a corresponding section of the seabed also moves. Experts understand tsunamis as so-called long-period (that is, traveling far from each other) marine gravity waves that unexpectedly arise in the seas and oceans precisely as a result of earthquakes, the centers of which are located under the bottom.

The ocean floor shakes from colossal energy and produces huge faults and cracks, which lead to the subsidence or elevation of large areas of the bottom. It’s like a giant underwater ridge rushes the entire volume of water from the bottom to the very surface, in all directions from the hearth. Ocean water near the surface may not absorb this energy at all, and ships passing through it may simply not notice a serious wave disturbance. And in the depths, the future catastrophe begins to gain momentum and rushes at breakneck speed to the nearest shores.

Tsunamis arise from explosions of underwater volcanoes and as a consequence of bottom collapses. Coastal landslides, caused by the fall of a huge mass of rock into the water, can also cause a tsunami. Tsunamis with sources at great depths usually have great destructive power. In addition, the causes of tsunamis are surges of water into bays caused by typhoons, storms and strong tides, which, as can be seen, can explain the origin of the Japanese word “tsunami”, which translates as “big wave in the harbor”.

Giant waves have high speed and enormous energy, and therefore are capable of being thrown far onto land. When approaching the shore, they become deformed and, rolling onto the shore, cause enormous destruction. In the open ocean, water monsters are low, not exceeding a height of 2–3 m during the most powerful earthquakes, but at the same time they have a significant length, sometimes reaching 200–300 km, and an incredible speed of spread.

Approaching the shore, depending on the coastal bottom topography and the shape of the coastline, giant waves can grow up to several tens of meters. Once in the shallow coastal zone, the wave changes - its height increases and, at the same time, the steepness of the leading front increases. When approaching the shore, it begins to capsize, creating a foaming, seething, high-height water stream that falls onto the shore. In such cases, river mouths are quite dangerous, through which monstrous waves can penetrate into the interior of the territory at a distance of several kilometers.

Tsunami - consequences

1946, April 6 - the city of Hilo on the island of Hawaii experienced the full power of the disturbance of the water element. Residential buildings and administrative buildings were overturned, asphalt roads and beaches disappeared, a railway bridge was moved 300 m upstream, and boulders weighing several tons were scattered throughout the devastated area. This was the result of a shift in the ocean floor that occurred 4,000 km from Hilo, in the Aleutian Islands.

The shock gave rise to a series of tsunamis that rushed across the Pacific Ocean at a speed of more than 1,100 km/h, reaching a height of 7.5 to 15 m. The water element attacked the land with all its fury and literally tore apart everything that it managed to embrace with its foamy embrace. Waves of this kind spread in all directions from the point where they originate at long intervals, but with frightening speed. While the distance between ordinary sea waves is about 100 m, the crests of tsunami waves follow each other at intervals of 180 km to 1200 km. Therefore, the passage of each such wave is accompanied by a deceptive calm.

That is why, when the first wave in Hilo subsided, many residents went down to the shore to understand the scale of the destruction, and were washed away by the next giant wave. The eyewitness account stated:

“The tsunami waves, steep and swirling, rushed ashore. Between the ridges, the water receded from the shore, exposing reefs, coastal silt accumulations and the bay bottom up to 150 meters or more beyond the normal shoreline. The water rolled back quickly and violently, with whistling, hissing and roaring. In several places, houses were washed out to sea, and in some places even huge rocks and concrete blocks were carried out beyond the reefs. People and their belongings were swept out to sea, and only a few of them could be rescued several hours later with the help of boats and life rafts dropped from aircraft.”

If the speed of a simple wind wave can reach 100 km/h, then tsunami waves move at the speed of a jet aircraft - from 900 to 1500 km/h. The deadly influence of the elements is determined not only by the power of the shock that gave rise to the tsunami, but also by the terrain over which the giant wave travels and the distance from the coast.

Of course, they are more dangerous on flat coasts than on steep ones. When the bottom has cliffs, the oncoming waves will not rise to a sufficient height, but when they hit a gently sloping shore, they often reach the height of a six-story building or more. When these waves enter the bay or bay in the form of a funnel, each of them brings a violent flood onto the shore. The height of the wave decreases only in closed, expanding bays with a narrow entrance, and when it hits the river, the wave increases in size, increasing its destructive power.

The activity of a volcano in the water column gives an effect that can be compared to a strong earthquake. The greatest of all known giant waves was caused by the powerful eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883, when a huge mass of rock was thrown into the air to a height of several kilometers and turned into a dust cloud that circled our planet three times.

Sea waves up to 35 m high, rushing one after another, drowned over 36,000 residents of the nearby islands. They circled the entire globe and a day later were spotted in the English Channel. The military vessel, located off the coast of Sumatra, was thrown 3.5 km into the interior of the island, where it got stuck in a thicket 9 m above sea level.

Another stunning case of an unusually high wave was recorded on July 9, 1958. After the earthquake in Alaska, the mass of ice and earth rocks with a volume of about 300 million cubic meters. m fell into the narrow and long Lituya Bay, causing a colossal wave surge on the opposite side of the bay, reaching almost 60 meters in height in certain areas of the coast. At this time, there were three small fishing vessels in the bay.

“Despite the fact that the disaster occurred 9 km from the place where the ships were moored,” says an eyewitness, “everything looked terrible. Before the eyes of the shocked people, a huge wave rose up, swallowing the foot of the northern mountain. Then it swept across the bay, tearing trees off the mountain slopes, destroying the climbers’ camp that had recently been abandoned; falling like a mountain of water onto Cenotaph Island, it swallowed up an old hut and eventually rolled over the highest point of the island, which rose 50 m above sea level.

The wave spun Ulrich's ship, which, having lost control, rushed at the speed of a galloping horse towards the ships of Swanson and Wagner, still at anchor. To the horror of the people, the wave broke the anchor chains and dragged both ships like splinters, forcing them to overcome the most incredible journey that once befell fishing boats. According to Swanson, below the ship they saw the tops of 12-meter trees and rocks the size of houses. The wave literally threw people across the island into the open sea.”

Over the centuries, tsunamis have become the culprits of terrible world catastrophes.

1737 - a case of a giant wave on the Kamchatka coast is described, when the waves washed away almost everything that was in the flood zone. The small number of victims was explained only by the small number of inhabitants.

1755 - due to the fault of a water monster, the city of Lisbon is completely erased from the earth, the death toll is more than 40,000 people.

1883 - a tsunami caused enormous damage to the coasts of the Indian Ocean, the death toll was more than 30,000.

1896 - a water disaster struck the shores of Japan, the death toll was more than 25,000.

1933 - the coast of Japan was again damaged, more than a thousand buildings were destroyed, 3,000 people died.

1946 - a powerful tsunami caused enormous damage to the islands and coastline near the Aleutian Gap; the total loss is more than $20 million.

1952 - a furious ocean attacked the northern coast of Russia, and although the wave height was no more than 10 m, the damage was enormous.

1960 - the coast of Chile and nearby areas suffered from the onslaught of giant waves, the damage was more than $200 million.

1964 - The Pacific coast was hit by a tsunami that destroyed more than $100,000 worth of buildings, roads and bridges.

In recent years, it has been established that even “cosmic guests”—meteorites that have not had time to burn up in the earth’s atmosphere—can cause giant waves. Perhaps, several tens of millions of years ago, the fall of a giant meteorite led to a tsunami, which led to the death of the dinosaurs. Another, quite banal reason, may be the wind. It is only capable of causing a large wave under the right circumstances - the air pressure must be correct.

However, the most important thing is that a person himself is capable of triggering a “man-made” tsunami. This is exactly what the Americans proved in the middle of the 20th century by experiencing an underwater nuclear explosion, which caused huge underwater disturbances and, as a result, the appearance of monstrous high-speed waves. Be that as it may, people still cannot predict the occurrence of a tsunami with certainty and, what is even worse, stop it.

Tsunamis are constant companions of earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. Giant waves destroy entire cities, taking thousands of lives. How do they arise and what are they capable of? The time has come to talk about the largest tsunami in history.

In 80% of cases, megawaves are caused by earthquakes caused by the displacement of huge layers of earth on the ocean floor. The sudden movement of the platforms causes fluctuations in millions of tons of water, which rushes from the epicenter to the shores.

This is similar to the effect of throwing a stone into water. Less commonly, tsunamis are generated by landslides and volcanic eruptions, when huge masses of earth and stones abruptly descend into the water.

Tsunami facts you might not know

The tsunami comes unnoticed. In the open ocean, waves usually reach only a few meters in height, and only close to the shore does the water rise and hit the land with all its might.

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The harbinger of a tsunami is a sharp ebb. Not everyone knows about this. Seeing the waters quickly recede, many people remain on the shore, observing the unusual phenomenon and collecting shells as the ocean prepares to deliver the killing blow.

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It is widely believed that a tsunami is a wall of water as high as a high-rise building. In fact, waves can only grow up to 6–7 meters high. In a tsunami, it is not the wave itself that is scary, but what comes after it - huge masses of water that flood the shore in a continuous and rapid stream.

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Over the past hundred years, there have been many powerful tsunamis that shook the world.

The most violent tsunami in history

The tsunami, considered the deadliest, was recorded in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. Two huge tectonic layers, which had been resting against each other for a long time, could not withstand the stress. One of the platforms rose sharply above the other and moved forward several meters. This caused a magnitude 9 earthquake, one of the strongest in recorded history. As a result, huge masses of water rushed at high speed to the shores of Asia and Africa.

The first and most devastating blow fell on Indonesia. Waves with a height of 12 to 30 meters destroyed cities and villages.

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An hour after the earthquake, the tsunami reached Thailand. No one foresaw the trouble; there were many tourists on the beaches who did not immediately understand what was happening. The delay cost thousands of people their lives.

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Three hours after the disaster began, megawaves swept the coasts of Sri Lanka and India, and a few hours later the tsunami reached Africa.

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The disaster killed more than 230 thousand people and left 1.6 million people homeless in Asia and Africa. The video shows footage captured by eyewitnesses of the disaster.

Tsunami that gave rise to a nuclear disaster

More than 15 thousand dead, 3.5 thousand missing, 300 thousand left homeless, radiation leakage - these were the consequences of the tsunami that hit the shores of Japan on March 11, 2011.

The deadly wave was caused by the shift of a massive section of the earth's crust in the Pacific Ocean. The movement of a huge layer of earth gave rise to a magnitude 9 earthquake, which was later called the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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Following the vibrations of the earth came a powerful tsunami.

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The wall of water in some areas rose 30-40 meters. The waves wiped out cities and villages.

Tsunami statistics demonstrate the destructive power of this natural phenomenon. In 2016, Japan was covered by a tsunami with a wave height of up to 1.5 m, which reached the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which was in emergency condition.

This natural phenomenon is associated with the movement of the Earth's lithospheric plates. lifts one slab above another. The condition for the formation of a wave is a significant vertical movement of this section of the seabed. The magnitude of the wave's rise at the location of the movement is related not only to the distance the plate rises, but also to the strength of the seismic shock.

According to the laws of physics, liquid columns of different heights along the edges of a fault are an unstable system. Therefore, the alignment of the pillars occurs due to the formation of a wave that “flows” from a high pillar to a low one. The atmosphere also participates in restoring the disturbed balance. Directional winds (hurricanes) tend to move the volume of “rising” water towards its “falling” direction.

From the point of view of wave phenomena, the occurrence of a tsunami is associated with the formation of long waves with high travel speed. In this case, the propagation of waves in the open sea contributes to their attenuation, but in the case of a long tectonic fault this does not happen. Conditions for the formation of a tsunami:

• the bottom section must move vertically to a considerable height;
• the tectonic fault must have a large extent (with a small source, the waves will die out before reaching the shore);
• the rate of rise of the section of the ocean floor must be high (otherwise the rise of the wave is gently compensated).

The occurrence of a tsunami as a result of an earthquake is a common variant of this phenomenon.

Where do the waves of destructive force come from?

The usual causes of tsunamis are earthquakes. The tsunami does not depend on the strength of the earthquake, since shifts are not always noticeable in deep ocean waters. Other reasons (7%) and some (5%). In 1883, the Krakatoa volcano erupted near the island of Java, causing tsunami waves to kill 36,000 people.

The most dangerous earthquakes with seismic activity of 12 points. But for 10 years such things have not been observed. In addition to natural tsunamis, huge waves can be caused by human activity, such as a nuclear explosion in the ocean or sea. The formation of waves can also be associated with the fall of a large meteorite. Recently, an opinion has arisen that an iceberg falling into the water can cause a wave comparable to a tsunami.

Classification of the phenomenon

Tsunami statistics classify their types in different ways, dividing them by intensity, wave height, origin and number of victims.

Unlike surface waves, which can be caused by strong winds or storms, a tsunami in the ocean forms from the bottom to the upper level. A huge volume of water is displaced. The greater the depth of the ocean, the greater the wave height.

A tsunami in the ocean does not pose a serious danger, since most of the wave is underwater. As you approach the shore, the danger increases along with the size of the wave. In shallow water, the rear waves catch up with the front ones, and the superposition of one on top of the other causes an increase in height, in some cases up to 50 meters.

The dangerous factor is the speed of the tsunami. It averages 400–500 km per hour, and in the Pacific Ocean it can reach 800 km per hour.

Before the first powerful wave, there may be a low tide, misleading people vacationing near the coast. The rapidly approaching wave hits the coast and rolls back. However, the maximum height of the tsunami does not occur during the first wave. After two to three hours, the next flow of water floods the seashore and penetrates several kilometers deep, demolishing buildings, people and animals. Sometimes the wave breaks onto land for 10 km or more.

The most destructive waves in history

Disasters associated with coastal flooding, as tsunami statistics show, have occurred repeatedly in the world. The most destructive waves in human history are presented by year in the table:

The last tsunami reported in Thailand in 2004, originating in South Asia, reached the coast of Africa and flooded the coastal area of ​​Somalia. Waves covered the western part of Thailand. The devastating tsunami in Phuket destroyed the entire infrastructure of the resort town.

Karon Beach and other world-famous holiday destinations (Patong, Kamala and Kata) were swept away by the waves. The approaching wave in Phuket was not immediately visible, so especially many tourists died in the coastal area. The number of victims in Thailand reached 8.5 thousand people. Coastal areas in Sri Lanka were flooded for tens of kilometers. This tsunami in India and Indonesia inundated densely populated coastlines, destroying people and buildings.

There was much less destruction in the Maldives; scientists believe that the coral reefs surrounding the islands are a natural protection against high waves.

Characteristics of a tsunami

As tsunami statistics show, the danger of this phenomenon is largely related to the speed of development of events. There is a relationship between characteristics and consequences. Main characteristics of a tsunami:

• tsunami wave speed and height;
• wavelength (segment between two waves);
• wave period (time interval between the passage of two waves).

The degree of destruction and the number of victims depend on all these parameters.

Why are water shafts dangerous?

A rapidly approaching tsunami carries in front of it an air flow comparable in strength to a blast wave. Possible consequences of a tsunami:

• powerful waves destroy everything in their path and flood the territory. The resulting tsunami flooding contributes to further destruction of buildings. pollute the soil and drinking water with foreign substances, contributing to the development of infectious diseases;
• destruction of buildings and communications;
• death of people and animals;
• destruction of sea vessels standing near the shore;
• destruction of soil cover and.

Natural disaster protection

As statistics show, tsunamis cannot be prevented. Only a few measures are available to reduce damage from them:

• forecasting the onset of a wave is associated with monitoring seismic activity;
• constant monitoring of the movement of shafts;
• informing the population by all available means;
• timely evacuation of people and animals;
• construction of hydraulic structures in the risk zone of high waves.

Natural disasters bring losses to the state. And for people, the economy and nature, sometimes irreparable consequences. Thousands of tsunami victims over the past 10 years are a disappointing statistic.

Many people die due to ignorance and wrong actions. Evidence of this is the video of eyewitnesses, not all of whom survived the onset of the disaster, while they were busy filming the bright phenomenon. Such a frivolous attitude towards danger differs from a belated sense of self-preservation.

How to escape from a tsunami? The emerging tsunami threat requires rapid mobilization. The collection of documents and personal belongings should be carried out as soon as possible. It is optimal to move inland to higher ground, at least 2–3 km from the coast.

The coastal zone receives the strongest blow from the elements. If you are on the beach, then you need to find shelter in a building on a hill, which must be durable. While indoors, you need to close all windows and doors and move to a high floor.

If you are caught by a wave in the sea, you need to brace yourself and cover your head with your hands, take a deep breath, then emerge and throw off excess clothes. After waiting for the return wave, you need to find shelter and take cover. A powerful tree or a solid building behind which you can take shelter can act as protection against a tsunami on the shore.

When going on vacation to countries adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, it is useful to obtain information about actions in case of a tsunami and the existing warning system. Typically, the victims of a tsunami are people, caught by surprise, and curious tourists who collect shells at low tide, which precedes a powerful wave. The number of destructive waves has increased throughout the world over the past 10 years.

The last tsunami in Cyprus occurred in 1908. Scientists believe that destructive waves form in the Mediterranean Sea once every 100 years. The same is true in Greece, Turkey and other countries washed by this sea. Australia is generally considered vulnerable to tsunamis from the east coast of the Pacific Ocean.

In 2016, a powerful earthquake occurred in New Zealand, which caused a wave of 2.5 meters to hit the shores. An infrequent guest of the tsunami in the Dominican Republic. To understand in what years there were tsunamis in this country, let’s look at history:

• the powerful earthquake of 1751 caused the most tragic destruction, including from high water masses;
• 1842 waves reached 2 meters;
• 1946 The northern coast of the country was destroyed, five-meter waves flooded the shores, 1950 people died.

The latest tsunami statistics do not include this area among the most dangerous. Natural disasters in the Far East are quite common due to its location. Waves covered coastal areas in 1923, 1952 and 1960. Excavations by scientists have discovered that 8,000 years ago, volcanic eruptions caused more than 50 megatsunamis in the region.

In Japanese, the character "tsu" means bay or bay, and "nami" means wave. Together, both hieroglyphs translate as “wave flooding the bay.” The catastrophic consequences of two tsunamis that hit the shores of the Indian Ocean in 2004 and Japan in 2011 clearly demonstrated that reliable protection against this formidable natural phenomenon has not yet been found...

Tsunami - what is it?

Contrary to popular belief, a tsunami is not one gigantic wave that suddenly hits the shore and sweeps away everything in its path. In fact, a tsunami is a series of marine gravity waves of very long length, resulting from the displacement of extended sections of the bottom during strong underwater earthquakes or, occasionally, for other reasons - as a result of volcanic eruptions, giant landslides, asteroid falls, underwater nuclear explosions.

How does a tsunami occur?

The most common cause of a tsunami is vertical movement of the bottom during underwater earthquakes. When part of the bottom sinks and part rises, the mass of water begins to oscillate. In this case, the water surface tends to return to its original level - the average ocean level - and thus generates a series of waves.

The speed of tsunami propagation at a sea depth of 4.5 km exceeds 800 km/h. But the wave height in the open sea is usually small - less than a meter, and the distance between the crests is several hundred kilometers, so a tsunami is not so easy to notice from the deck of a ship or from an airplane. In the vast oceans, encountering a tsunami is not dangerous for any ship. But when waves enter shallow water, their speed and length decrease, and their height increases sharply. Near the coast, the wave height often exceeds 10 m, and in exceptional cases reaches 30-40 m. Then the impact of the elements causes colossal damage to coastal cities.

However, tsunami waves of relatively low height often cause enormous destruction. At first glance, this seems strange: why don’t seemingly more formidable waves that arise during a storm lead to similar casualties? The fact is that the kinetic energy of a tsunami is much higher than that of wind waves: in the first case, the entire thickness of the water moves, and in the second, only the surface layer. As a result, the pressure of water splashing onto land during a tsunami is many times higher than during a storm.

One more factor should not be discounted. During a storm, the excitement increases gradually, and people usually manage to move to a safe distance before they begin to face danger. A tsunami always comes suddenly.

Today, about 1000 cases of tsunamis are known, of which more than a hundred had catastrophic consequences. Geographically, the periphery of the Pacific Ocean is considered the most dangerous region - approximately 80% of all tsunamis occur there.

It is impossible to completely protect the coast from a tsunami, although some countries, especially Japan, have tried to build breakwaters and breakwaters in order to reduce the force of the waves. However, there are cases when these structures played a negative role: tsunamis destroyed them, and pieces of concrete picked up by water flows only aggravated the damage on the shore. Hopes for protection from trees planted along the shore were also not realized. To dampen the energy of waves, too large an area of ​​forest plantations is needed, and most coastal cities simply do not have that. Well, a narrow strip of trees along the embankment cannot provide any resistance to a tsunami.

One of the important measures to protect the population of dangerous regions from destructive waves was the international tsunami warning system created in the Pacific region. 25 states, including Russia, take part in its work. Scientists from different countries, based on a comprehensive analysis of strong earthquake zones, are trying to determine whether they caused tsunamis in the past, and what is the likelihood of tsunamis occurring in the future. The system's main research center, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, continuously monitors seismic conditions and surface levels in the Pacific Ocean.

In our country, the tsunami warning service of the Far East consists of three regional services: Kamchatka, Sakhalin regions and Primorsky Territory. In the Kamchatka region, in particular, there is a tsunami station of the territorial administration for hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring and a seismic station of the Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The most destructive tsunamis of the past

It is possible that the most catastrophic tsunami event in human history occurred in ancient times, although it has come down to us in the form of myths and legends. Around 1450 BC. An entire civilization perished from a giant wave triggered by the Santorini volcano. 120 km from the volcano is Crete, which at that time was one of the most powerful powers in the Mediterranean. But the tsunami at one point caused colossal damage to the island of Crete, from which the previously prosperous state was never able to recover. It collapsed, and many of its cities were abandoned for two and a half thousand years.

Giant tsunami waves followed the devastating earthquake in Lisbon on November 1, 1755. The source of the earthquake was obviously at the bottom of the ocean. The total number of victims from the waves and earthquake is estimated at approximately 60 thousand people.

In 1883, as a result of a series of eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, a powerful tsunami was formed, from which the islands of Java and Sumatra suffered the most. Waves up to 40 m high wiped out about 300 villages from the face of the earth, killing more than 36 thousand people. Near the city of Teluk Betung, a Dutch warship, the gunboat Berouw, was thrown 3 km inland and ended up on a mountainside at an altitude of 9 m above sea level. Seismic waves passed two or three times around the Earth, and unusual red dawns were observed for a long time in Europe from the ash thrown into the atmosphere.

The most destructive tsunami of the 20th century hit the coast of Chile on May 22, 1960. The tsunami and the powerful earthquake that generated it, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, killed 2,000 people, injured 3,000, left two million homeless, and caused $550 million in damage. The same tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii, 20 in the Philippines, 3 in Okinawa and more than 100 in Japan. The wave height on Pitcairn Island reached 13 m, on Hawaii - 12 m.

The most unusual tsunami

In 1958, a tsunami was generated in Lituya Bay, Alaska, caused by a giant landslide - about 81 million tons of ice and solid rock fell into the sea as a result of the earthquake. The waves reached an incredible height of 350-500 m - these are the largest waves ever recorded in history! The tsunami washed away all vegetation from the mountain slopes. Fortunately, the shores of the bay were uninhabited, and human casualties were minimal - only two fishermen died.

Tsunami in the Russian Far East

On April 4, 1923, a strong earthquake occurred in the Kamchatka Bay. 15-20 minutes later a wave approached the top of the bay. Two fish factories on the coast were completely destroyed, and the village of Ust-Kamchatsk was severely damaged. The ice on the Kamchatka River was broken over a distance of 7 km. 50 km southwest of the village, the maximum height of water rise on the coast was observed - up to 30 m.

On Russian territory, the most catastrophic tsunami occurred on the night of November 4–5, 1952, on the Far Eastern island of Paramushir, where the city of Severo-Kurilsk is located. At about 4 a.m., strong tremors began. Half an hour later the earthquake stopped, and the people who had left their homes returned to their homes. Only a few remained outside and noticed the approaching wave. They managed to take refuge in the hills, but when they went down to inspect the destruction and look for relatives, a second, even more powerful wave of water about 15 m high fell on the city. The captain of one tug stationed in the roadstead of Severo-Kurilsk said that that night the sailors did nothing They didn’t notice, but early in the morning they were surprised by the large amount of garbage and various objects floating around. When the morning fog cleared, they saw that there was no city on the shore.

On the same day, the tsunami reached the shores of Kamchatka and caused serious damage to a number of villages. In total, more than 2,000 people died, but in the USSR, until the early 1990s, almost no one knew about the events of that tragic night.

The tsunami that occurred on May 23, 1960, off the coast of Chile, reached the shores of the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka about a day later. The highest level of water rise was 6-7 m, and on the territory of the Khalaktyrsky beach near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - 15 m. In Vilyuchinskaya and Russkaya bays, houses were destroyed and outbuildings were washed into the sea.

The spread of the tsunami in the Pacific Ocean (the most destructive waves are black and red) after the 1960 earthquake. Map prepared by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Indian Ocean disaster (2004)

After an earthquake measuring about 9 on the Richter scale with an epicenter in the northern part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, which occurred on the night of December 26, 2004, a powerful tsunami covered the Indian Ocean. The more than 1,000-kilometer fault line, created by the movement of large layers of the earth's crust on the ocean floor, generated a huge release of energy. The waves hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives and Seychelles and reached Somalia, located 5 thousand km from the epicenter of the earthquake. More than 300 thousand people became victims of the tsunami, including foreign tourists from many countries who were vacationing in Indonesia and Thailand in those days. Most of the dead were in Indonesia (more than 180 thousand) and Sri Lanka (about 39 thousand).

Such numerous casualties are largely explained by the lack of basic knowledge among the local population about the impending danger. So, when the sea retreated from the shore, many locals and tourists remained on the shore - out of curiosity or out of a desire to collect the fish remaining in the puddles. In addition, after the first wave, many returned to their homes to assess the damage or try to find loved ones, not knowing that others would follow the first wave.

Tsunami in Japan (2011)

The tsunami was caused by a strong earthquake of magnitude 9.0-9.1 that occurred on March 11, 2011 at 14:46 local time (8:46 Moscow time). The center of the earthquake was at a depth of 32 km, at a point with coordinates 38.322° N. 142.369°E east of the island of Honshu, 130 km east of the city of Sendai and 373 km northeast of Tokyo. In Japan, the tsunami caused widespread destruction on the east coast. The maximum wave height was observed in Miyagi Prefecture - 10 m. The tsunami flooded the Sendai airport, washed away one passenger train, and caused serious damage to the Fukushima I nuclear power plant. In Sendai alone, the tsunami caused the death of approximately 300 people. The total damage caused to the country's economy amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.

According to official data, the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami was 15,892 people, with another 2,576 people listed as missing. 6,152 people were seriously injured. According to unofficial data, the number of victims is much higher. According to media reports, 9,500 people are missing in the city of Minamisanriku alone.

Numerous photographic documents paint a truly apocalyptic picture of destruction:

The tsunami was observed along the entire Pacific coast - from Alaska to Chile, but outside Japan it looked much weaker. Hawaii's tourism infrastructure was hit the hardest—about 200 private yachts and boats were wrecked and sunk in Honolulu alone. On the island of Guam, waves tore two US Navy nuclear submarines from their moorings. In Crescent City, California, more than 30 boats and boats were damaged and one person was killed.

According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, due to the threat of a tsunami on the Kuril Islands, 11 thousand residents were evacuated from coastal areas. The highest wave height - about 3 m - was recorded in the area of ​​the village of Malokurilskoye.

Tsunami in cinema

In the popular genre of disaster films, tsunamis have repeatedly attracted the attention of screenwriters and directors. An example is the feature film “Tsunami” (South Korea, 2009), frames from which are given below.