Tsunamis are a powerful wall of water that cause a devastating amount of damage to property and lives. In this inquiry we will inform you on what tsunamis are and how they are formed. How they impact people, land and property. Along with what New Zealand and other countries are doing to mitigate their effects and what we feel is the best solution.
A tsunami is a gigantic wave that is caused by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 and greater or a volcanic eruption under the ocean. The deeper the water the faster the tsunami can travel, in deep water a Tsunami can travel as fast as a jet plane which can go at 500 miles per hour, it will slow down as the water gets shallower and grow taller as it hits the shore.
A good sign of an incoming tsunami is an earthquake that lasts longer than 20 seconds. Another sign that the tsunami will hit is the rapid withdrawal of the water level below the expected low tide, the tide will go out in order to feed the tsunami.
The biggest tsunami that people have recorded was 100ft high and traveled 1,700 ft to higher ground. An earthquake followed by a landslide in 1958 in Alaska's Lituya Bay generated a wave 100 feet high, the tallest tsunami ever documented
In india 2004 a tsunami made $15 billion in damage.in 2004 the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, with a death toll of over 230,000 people, cost around' $15 billion
There are multiple ways of reducing the damage or death toll but there anrt as much ways to stop it, bur scientists are working on more ways that could stop a tsunami or reducing the damage to as little as possible.The pressure of deep-ocean sound waves could be used to stop tsunamis in their tracks, researchers have found, by dissipating their energy across wider areas and reducing the height and speed of these monster waves before they reach land. If you Avoid building and living within several hundred feet of the coastline this will lessen the chance of damage to your property. areas close to the ocean are more likely to experience damage from tsunamis, strong winds, or coastal storms.
A mega Tsunami is a very rare but extremely powerful wave. The most recent mega tsunami was in 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska the wave reached a height of 100 ft. The average height of a tsunami is 30 - 70 ft so a mega tsunami is a lot higher than most.
Just as with ordinary surf, the energy of the tsunami waves must be contained in a smaller volume of water, so the waves grow in height. ... If the tsunami waves arrive at high tide, or if there are concurrent storm waves in the area, the effects will be cumulative and the inundation and destruction even greater.
The main things that get damaged by tsunamis are cars, buildings, roads, electronics, any roadside objects, any wood exposed to the tsunami because of the sea water but mainly the economy. After a tsunami many businesses will be unable to function as their supply routes could be blocked by debris that the tsunami brought though.
The government is sending out warning messages to any person with a device that allows the government. Although you can turn this off in settings it is still effective when it comes to people in schools and people in a home with more that one person, this is called a civil defence message
Japan has created a device that will mitigate the effects of a tsunami by having pylons in the seabed and when air is pumped into them they rise up, this takes 3 minutes. They tested this in rough sea water and it reduced the waves to half their size. Komeashi bay used this and it reduced the size of the tsunami by two thirds. They are also researching further into wave hardened tsunami evacuation towers
To recap we our research questions are, what are tsunamis, how can you tell a tsunami is coming, how many deaths per year, what is the biggest tsunami, how much money countries spend on rebuilding after a tsunami hits, are there any ways to stop a tsunami, what is a mega tsunami, what determines how destructive a tsunami is, what is being done in NZ to stop a tsunamis, what is being done in other parts of the world to stop tsunamis and what is the best possible solution. So in conclusion we think that the pylons are the best way to mitigate the effects of a tsunami although there are people working on better ways.