Local tsunami and distant tsunami

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                                  Initiation                                                                                        Split
                                                    walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/basic.html

    Initiation - When an earthquake occurs under water, the displacement of seafloor occurs, pushing the entire water column up and down. The potential energy that results from pushing water above mean sea level is then transferred to horizontal propagation of the tsunami wave. 

    Split -  Within several minutes of the earthquake, the initial tsunami is split into a tsunami that travels towards the nearby coast(Local tsunami) and another tsunami that travels out to the deep ocean(Distant tsunami-remote source tsunami)
     

  • The regions that have generated distant tsunamis affecting the entire Pacific Basin  
    -the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska,
 and the coast of South America
  • 1960  Chilean tsunami (caused by magnitude 8.6 earthquake)


    -  Chile(local tsunami) ; 200 fatalities
    -  Hawaii(distant tsunami) ; 61fatalities
    -  Japan(distant tsunami) ; 140 falalities
     
     
     


    www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general
    This animation, produced by Professor Nobuo Shuto of the Disaster Control Research Center, Tohoku University, Japan, shows the propagation of the earthquake-generated 1960 Chilean tsunami across the Pacific.  Please note that the vertical scale has been exagaerated in this animation - tsunamis are only about a meter high at the most in the open ocean.
     
     

  • Hawaii has experianced a number of distant tsunamis. Since Hawaii is located in the middle of Pacific Ocean, hawaii can receive distant tsunamis from the coasts of all around the Pacific.


     

     

                                                               

  •                                               Lander and Lockridge, United States Tsunamis, 1989