Tsunami By: Frank Xin
Table of Contents Introduction..................................................................................................Page 3 Appearance..................................................................................................Page 4 How Does It Form?.......................................................................................Page 5 Tallest And BIggest Tsunami Ever.................................................................Page 6 Conclusion.....................................................................................................Page 7 Bibliography...................................................................................................Page 8 Glossary........................................................................................................Page 9 About The Author.......................................................................................... Page 10
Introduction What is blue and as tall as a 10 story building? What killed lots of people? What has the nickname of “killer wave” and “harbor wave”? If you want know, you must read this book about tsunamis!
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Appearance Normal tsunami first start off in the deep sea, which would be about 3 feet, but by the time it reaches land, it will be about as high as a 3-story building. Usually, the first strike of the tsunami waves is not the strongest. The form of tsunami waves can have different forms depending on the shape of the ocean bottom. It usually looks like a rising tide, flooding the shores. Some coastlines could be high, and that slows the waves, the waves would gather more water and push it in to a gigantic wave. As you can see, tsunami waves can have lots of different forms.
This is a diagram of how a tsunami forms.
How does it form? A tsunami is created when there is an under water volcano eruption or an under water earthquake or a landslide. The earthquake causes the sea level to go up and down creating a wave. When the waves reaches shallow water, it slows down which causes the waves to grow higher. That's why people run to higher lands when there is a tsunami. 80 percent of tsunami occurs in the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire. Around 75 percent of the time, tsunamis are formed by earthquakes When the heavier oceanic plate slips in to the lighter continental, It will form an underwater earthquake The earthquake lifts part of the ocean floor and drops the other parts. And that makes the water go up and down. It takes a Richter scale more than7.0 to create a huge tsunami! As you can see, tsunami is an extremely deadly wall of water!
This is a map of the Ring of Fire.
Tallest and Biggest Tsunami Ever On July 9, 1958, the tallest tsunami ever happened in Alaska, Lituya Bay. It broke the record of the tallest tsunami ever, it was 1720 feet!! The earthquake had a Richter scale reading of 8.3! Imagine the Eiffel tower, and then picture 2 one on top of the other one that's about how tall the tsunami was!! Only 5 people died since not many people lived there. The earthquake loosened 40 million cubic yard of rocks, which fell 3,000 feet and landed in the water. And that caused the tsunami. The strongest earthquake happened in 1960 caused a big tsunami, it happened at the coast of Chile. It was really big, it killed thousands of people in Chile, but that wasn't it, it also reached Hawaii and killed 61 people, it also reached Japan where 200 people died! (It traveled more than 16,800 kilometers!) Tsunamis are sure dangerous!
This is a diagram how tall the Lituya Bay tsunami was compared to skyscrapers.
Conclusion
Tsunami also has a very intere sting nickname, “harbor wave), the tsu stands for harbor in japanese and nami stands for wa ve. Because people can’t see a tsunami comi ng and when people go out to the sea and co me back, they find their house all destroyed. As you can see, tsunami is a very interesting na ture disaster.
Bibliography Âť, G. 2014. What is the typical appearance of a tsunami?. [online] Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_typical_appearance_of_a_tsunami [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014]. Ask.com. 2011. How Do Tsunamis Form. [online] Available at: http://www.ask.com/question/how-do-tsunamis-form [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014]. Bbc.co.uk. 2014. BBC - GCSE Bitesize: What causes a tsunami?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/natural_hazards/ tsunamis_rev1.shtml [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014]. Brainpop.com. 1999. BrainPOP | Tsunami. [online] Available at: http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/tsunami/ [Accessed: 10 Feb 2014]. Do Something. 1946. 11 Facts About Tsunamis. [online] Available at: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-tsunamis [Accessed: 10 Feb 2014]. En.wikipedia.org. 2011. Tsunami - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami [Accessed: 10 Feb 2014]. Enchantedlearning.com. 2010. Tsunami- EnchantedLearning.com. [online] Available at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/tsunami/ [Accessed: 10 Feb 2014]. Geology.com. 1958. World's Biggest Tsunami | 1720 feet-tall - Lituya Bay, Alaska. [online] Available at: http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014]. News.nationalgeographic.com. 2010. Tsunami Facts: How They Form, Warning Signs, and Safety Tips. [online] Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ news/2007/04/070402-tsunami.html [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014]. Tsunami-alarm-system.com. 2005. Formation of Tsunamis. [online] Available at: http://www.tsunami-alarm-system.com/en/phenomenon-tsunami/phenomenontsunami-formation.html [Accessed: 11 Feb 2014].
Glossary Tsunami- A gigantic, tall wave that is Crust- A layer of earth, it is around 3-5 caused by earthquakes, volcano eruption miles thick, it is the thinest of all layers, it is or landslides. above the mantle. Richter Scale- A scale that shows how strong the earthquake is. Harbor- A place on the coast where human keeps their ships. Ring of Fire- A bunch of volcanos (452) surrounding the outside of the Pacific Ocean, forming an upside down “U� Coastline- An outline of a coast the shape is not always the same because the wave changes the shape if the coastline.
About the Author Frank Xin is an 11 years old boy that goes to Shanghai American School ES Puxi. He was born in New Jersey. He is currently in grade 5 Mr.Paci s class. In his free time, he enjoys playing minecraft and playing handball. He also plays piano and clarinet. As you can see, Frank has a very interesting life.
! Do you know how powerful a tsunami is? How much it had killed? If you want to know more about this awesome natural disaster, then read this book!