World Tsunami Awareness Day is a result of Japan’s bitter experience of witnessing deadly tsunami waves. The day is celebrated on November 5 and is a reminder to make the world aware of the deadly waves and what to do if stuck in such a situation.
Although this phenomenon is rare, Tsunamis have claimed many lives, especially during the deadly Tsunami of the Indian ocean in 2004.
World Tsunami Awareness Day History
World Tsunami Awareness Day was commemorated on November 5 during the 70th United Nations General Assembly in the resolution A/RES/70/203, on December 22, 2015. This was marked after the 2004 Tsunami of the Indian ocean.
142 countries proposed this after the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which was adopted at the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR). This was organized in March 2015 by the Japanese Government by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in November 2015.
What is a Tsunami?
The word Tsunami is derived from the Japanese words “tsu” (which means harbor) and “nami” (which means wave). A tsunami is a progression of gigantic waves made by underwater movements typically connected with quakes happening beneath or close to the sea.
Volcanic emissions, submarine avalanches, and waterfront rock falls can likewise create a tsunami wave. They start from an upward development of the ocean bottom with the resulting relocation of water mass. Tsunami waves frequently look like dividers of water and can assault the coastline and be perilous for quite a long time, with waves coming every 5 minutes to an hour.
The main wave may not be the biggest, and regularly it is the second, third, fourth, or much later waves that are the greatest. After one wave immerses or floods inland, it retreats toward the ocean regularly so the ocean bottom is uncovered. The following wave then, at that point, surges ashore in no time and conveys with it debris that was carried by past waves.
What are the reasons for Tsunami waves?
Quakes
It very well may be created by developments along shortcoming zones related to plate limits. Most solid quakes happen in subduction zones where a sea plate slides under a mainland plate or another more youthful sea plate.
There are four conditions fundamental for a quake to cause a tsunami wave:
- The quake should happen underneath the sea or cause the material to slide into the sea.
- The tremor should be solid, basically magnitude 6.5 on the Richter Scale.
- The tremor should burst the Earth’s surface and it should happen at shallow profundity – under 70km beneath the outer layer of the Earth.
- The seismic tremor should cause vertical development of the ocean bottom (up to a few meters).
Landslides
A landslide that happens along the coast can drive a lot of water into the ocean, upsetting the water and creating a wave. Submerged landslides can likewise bring about waves when the material released by the landslide moves savagely, pushing the water before it.
Volcanic eruptions
Though they are not very common, extremely explosive volcanic eruptions may cause the formation of dangerous tsunami waves.
One of the biggest and most damaging waves at any point recorded was produced in August 26, 1883, after the blast and breakdown of the abundance of Krakatoa (Krakatau), in Indonesia. This blast created waves that arrived at 135 feet, obliterated waterfront towns and towns along the Sunda Strait in both the islands of Java and Sumatra, killing 36,417 individuals.
Collisions
Tsunamis brought about by extraterrestrial impact (for example space rocks, meteors) are an incredibly uncommon event. Albeit no meteor/space rock incited tsunamis have been recorded in ongoing history, researchers understand that if these divine bodies should strike the sea, an enormous volume of water would without a doubt be dislodged to cause a wave.
Do you Know?
- By 2030, it is believed that around 50% of the global population will live in coastal areas.
- The 2004 Tsunami of the Indian ocean took 227,000 lives in around 14 countries.
- 58 tsunamis have occurred in the past 10 decades.
- Approximately, every tsunami took 4600 lives.
- Around 10% of global economic losses have resulted from tsunamis for the past 20 years.
- 700 million people inhabit in low-lying coastal areas and islands.
