The largest tsunami in the last 10 years in the world

Tsunami is a formidable phenomenon of nature, formed as a result of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes in coastal areas. This is a giant wave, covering the coast for many kilometers inside. The term "tsunami" is of Japanese origin, it literally means "a big wave in the gulf". Japan suffers most often from the impacts of the elements, because it is in the zone of the Pacific "fire ring" - the largest seismic belt of the Earth.

Causes

The tsunami is formed as a result of "shaking" of billions of tons of water. Like circles from a stone thrown into the water, the waves scatter in different directions at a speed of about 800 km per hour to reach the shore and splash out onto it with a huge rampart destroying everything in its path. And often people who find themselves in the zone of the tsunami have a few minutes to leave the dangerous place. Therefore, it is very important to warn the residents in time about the threat, not sparing money for this.

The largest tsunami in the last 10 years

A terrible tragedy occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004. Underwater earthquake of magnitude 9.1 caused the appearance of giant waves up to 98 m high. Within a few minutes they reached the shores of Indonesia. In total, 14 countries were in the disaster zone, including Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Bangladesh.

This was the largest tsunami in history in terms of the number of victims, which reached 230 thousand. Densely populated coastal areas were not equipped with a hazard warning system , which caused this amount
The dead. But there could be much more sacrifices if in the oral traditions of some peoples of these countries there were no information about the tsunami in antiquity. And some families told that they managed to leave a dangerous place thanks to children who learned about the giant waves in the classroom. And the retreat of the sea, before returning as a deadly tsunami, served as a signal for them to run higher up the slope. This confirmed the need for people to learn the rules of behavior in an emergency situation.

The largest tsunami in Japan

In the spring of 2011, a disaster struck the Japanese islands . On March 11, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 occurred near the coast of the country, which led to the appearance of waves up to 33 m in height. In some reports, other figures were noted - the crests of water reached 40-50 m.

Despite the fact that almost all the coastal cities of Japan have dams to protect themselves from the tsunami, this did not help in the earthquake zone. The number of deaths, as well as those carried to the ocean and the missing are more than 25 thousand people. People across the country were anxiously reading the lists of people affected by the earthquake and tsunami, afraid to find their loved ones in them.

125 thousand buildings were destroyed, transport infrastructure was damaged. But the most dangerous consequence was the accident at the nuclear power plant Fukushima I. It almost led to a nuclear catastrophe on a global scale, especially since radioactive contamination affected the waters of the Pacific Ocean. To liquidate the accident, not only Japanese power engineers, rescuers and self-defense forces were thrown. Leading nuclear powers of the world also sent their experts to help in saving from an ecological catastrophe. And although the situation in the nuclear power plant has now stabilized, scientists still can not fully assess its consequences.

The Tsunami Warning Service alerted the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines and other areas at risk. But, fortunately, their waves have already attenuated heavily weakened waves no more than three meters high.

So, the biggest tsunami in the last 10 years has happened in the Indian Ocean and in Japan.

Major catastrophes of the decade

Indonesia and Japan are among the countries where destructive waves happen often enough. For example, in July 2006, in Java again formed a tsunami as a result of a destructive underwater shock. Waves that reached 7-8 m in places swept along the coast, capturing even those areas that had not been miraculously affected during the deadly 2004 tsunami. Residents and guests of the resort areas again experienced the horror of helplessness before the forces of nature. Totally 668 people died or went missing during the wildfire, and more than 9 thousand people applied for medical help.

In 2009, a major tsunami happened on the Samoa Archipelago, where nearly 15-meter waves traveled through the islands, destroying everything in its path. The number of victims was 189 people, mostly children who were on the coast. But the operational work of the Tsunami Warning Center in the Pacific allowed to avoid even greater human losses, allowing people to be evacuated to safe places.

The largest tsunami in the last 10 years has occurred in the Pacific and Indian Oceans off the coast of Eurasia. But this does not mean that such catastrophes can not happen in other parts of the globe.

Destructive tsunami in the history of mankind

Human memory has preserved information about the giant waves observed in antiquity. The oldest refers to the mention of the tsunami that occurred in connection with the eruption of the volcano on the island of Greater Santorini. This event dates from 1410 BC.

This was the largest tsunami in the world of antiquity. The explosion raised most of the island to the sky, leaving in its place an immediately filled with sea water basin. From the collision with the hot magma, the water boiled and evaporated, intensifying the earthquake. The waters of the Mediterranean Sea rose, forming giant waves that hit the entire coast. The ruthless element took 100,000 lives, which is a very large number, even for the present, not so much for ancient times. According to many scientists, it was this eruption and the tsunami that resulted from it that led to the disappearance of the Crito-Minoan culture - one of the most mysterious ancient civilizations on Earth.

In 1755, the city of Lisbon was almost completely erased from the face of the earth by a terrible earthquake, fires that arose in its result, and a terrible wave that flooded the city afterwards. 60,000 people died, many were injured. Sailors from the ships that came to the port of Lisbon after the disaster did not recognize the surrounding area. This misfortune was one of the reasons for Portugal's loss of the title of a great naval power.

30 thousand people were victims of the tsunami of 1707 in Japan. In 1782, a disaster in the South China Sea killed 40,000 people. The eruption of the volcano Krakatau (1883) also triggered the emergence of a tsunami, which is associated with the death of 36.5 thousand people. In 1868, the number of victims of huge waves in Chile was more than 25 thousand. 1896 was marked by a new tsunami in Japan, which claimed more than 26 thousand lives.

Alaska Tsunami

An incredible wave was formed in 1958 in the Gulf of Lituya in Alaska. The root cause of its occurrence was also an earthquake. But other circumstances also imposed on him. As a result of the earthquake, a giant landslide came down from the slopes of the mountains on the Gulf Coast, amounting to about 300 million cubic meters. M of stones and ice. All this collapsed into the waters of the gulf, causing the formation of a colossal wave, reaching a height of 524 m! Scientist Miller believes that before that, there were the largest tsunamis in the world.

On the opposite shore struck a blow of such force that on the slopes were completely demolished all the vegetation and the mass of loose rocks, exposed rock base. Three ships that were in the bay in an unfortunate moment, had a different fate. One of them sank, the second crashed, but the team managed to escape. And the third vessel, being on the crest of the wave, was transferred through the spit that separated the bay and was thrown into the ocean. Only by a miracle the sailors did not perish. Then they remembered how during the forced "flight" they saw below the ship the tops of trees growing on a spit.

Fortunately, the shores of the Litui Bay are almost deserted, so this unprecedented wave did not cause any appreciable harm. The largest tsunami was without large human casualties. It is believed that only 2 people died.

Tsunami in the Russian Far East

In our country, the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands belong to the tsunami-hazardous zone. They also lie in a seismically unstable region, where often there are destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The largest tsunami in Russia was recorded in 1952. Waves that reached heights of 8-10 meters, fell on the Kurile Islands and Kamchatka. The population was not prepared for this turn of events after the earthquake. Those who, after the termination of the tremors, returned to the surviving houses, most of them did not get out of them. The city of Severo-Kurilsk was almost completely destroyed. The number of victims is estimated at 2336 people, but there may be more of them. The tragedy that took place a few days before the 35th anniversary of the October Revolution was hushed up for years, only rumors circulated about it. The city was moved to a higher and safer place.

The Kuril tragedy became the basis for the organization of a tsunami warning service in the USSR.

Lessons from the past

The largest tsunami in the last 10 years has shown the fragility of life and everything that was created by man, before the raging elements. But they also made it possible to understand the need to coordinate the efforts of many countries to prevent the worst consequences. And in most areas affected by the tsunami, work was done to prevent the population of the danger and the need for evacuation.