Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:09:07.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

36 - Tsunamis

from SECTION B - ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

Kristi L. Koenig
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Carl H. Schultz
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Get access

Summary

OVERVIEW

A tsunami is a series of waves created when a massive volume of ocean water is rapidly displaced. Tsunami waves are created as the mass of displaced water radiates relative to gravitational forces across an ocean or sea. Commonly, submarine earthquakes are associated with tsunamis, but other geophysical events causing mass displacement of water will generate tsunami waves. These may consist of underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions, meteorite impacts, and submarine explosions, including nuclear detonations. Tsunami events are best classified as sudden-impact disasters.

The term tsunami is of Japanese origin from the words “tsu” meaning harbor and “nami” meaning wave. Tsunamis usually occur in a series of nonrhythmic waves as opposed to a single wave. The first tsunami wave to approach a shore is often not the largest in the series. In open ocean, tsunami waves can have a wavelength of up to 700 km (435 miles) and propagate at speeds of 640 km (400 miles) per hour. In open water, tsunamis may have a wave height (amplitude) of only a few centimeters. Upon reaching shallow water, however, the waves slow and build to heights with inertial energy well beyond those of wind-generated waves (Figure 36.1).

Tsunamis can cause severe damage to coastal areas as they “run-up” onshore and dissipate wave energy caused by the massive displacement of ocean water. The destructive effect of a tsunami is controlled by the submarine topography in front of the land area that the tsunami approaches.

Type
Chapter
Information
Koenig and Schultz's Disaster Medicine
Comprehensive Principles and Practices
, pp. 578 - 585
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tsunami Vocabulary and Terminology. Available at: http://www.tsunami.noaa.gov/terminology.html. Accessed November 14, 2008.
Ross, DA. Tsunami Primer. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Available at: http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12462&tid=282&cid=7258&print=this. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,World Health Organization. TRIAMS Final Report. Available at: http://www.ifrc.org/docs/pubs/disasters/triams-bangkok-en.pdf. Acessed November 23, 2008.
,World Health Organization. Emergency and Disasters Data Base. Available at: http://www.em-dat.net/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Geophysical Data Center. Tsunami Events Full Search. Available at: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tsunamis. Available at: http://www.noaa.gov/tsunamis.html. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,U.S. Geological Survey. National Earthquake Information Center-NEIC. Available at: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/ Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Potential Ecological Impacts of Indian Ocean Tsunami on Nearshore Marine Ecosystems. Available at: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2362.htm. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,World Health Organization. Injuries and Disability: Priorities and Management for Populations Affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Asia. Available at: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/other_injury/tsunami/en/index.html. Accessed November 14, 2008.
Stratton, SJ, Tyler, RD. Characteristics of medical surge capacity demand for sudden-impact disasters. Acad Emerg Med. 2006;13:1193–1197.Google Scholar
Wetterhall, SF. Noji, EK. Surveillance and epidemiology. In: Noji, EK, ed. The Public Health Consequences of Disasters. New York: Oxford University Press; 1997:37–64.
Ville de Goyet, C. Health lessons learned from the recent earthquakes and tsunami in Asia. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2007;22:15–21.Google Scholar
,World Health Organization South Asia Tsunami Situation Reports. Available at: http://www.who.int/hac/crises/international/asia_tsunami/sitrep/en/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. PTWC History. Available at: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/history.php. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. PTWC Responsibilities. Available at: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/responsibilities.php. Accessed November 14, 2008.
University of Washington. The Tsunami Warning System. Available at: http://www.ees.washington.edu/tsunami/general/warning.html. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tsunami Warning Systems. Available at: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ Accessed November 14, 2008.
,National Weather Service. Tsunami Safety Advice. Available at: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/tsunamiready/safetya.pdf. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,U.S. National Research Council. Preventing Earthquake Disasters: The Grand Challenge in Earthquake Engineering a Research Agenda. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2003:12–25.
Dudley, WC, Lee, M. Tsunami! Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; 1998.
,National Weather Service. Tsunami Ready. Available at: http://www.tsunamiready.noaa.gov/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tsunamis. Available at: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,American Red Cross. Tsunami. Available at: http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_592_,00.html. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rapid health response, assessment, and surveillance after a tsunami – Thailand, 2004–2005. MMWR. 2005;54:61–64.Google Scholar
Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response Handbook. Revised 2004 ed. Available at: http://www.sphereproject.org/. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). Natural Disasters Myths and Realities. 2001. Available at: http://www.paho.org/English/DD/PED/myths.htm. Accessed November 14, 2008.
,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Assessment of health-related needs after tsunami and earthquake – three districts, Aceh Province Indonesia, July-August 2005. MMWR. 2006;55:93–97.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×