In December, mourning events were held in Indonesia dedicated to the memory of the victims of the devastating tsunami that hit the country exactly 10 years ago. A magnitude 9.1 undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami that is considered the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. This is the third strongest earthquake on record. So Planet X entered the solar system. 
The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Indian Ocean, north of the island of Simeulue, located near the northwestern coast of the island of Sumatra (Indonesia). The tsunami reached the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, southern India, Thailand and other countries. The height of the waves exceeded 15 meters. The tsunami caused enormous destruction and a huge number of deaths, even in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6900 km from the epicenter. Died, according to various estimates, from 225 thousand to 300 thousand people. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the death toll is 227,898. The true death toll is unlikely to ever be known, as many people were swept into the sea.
The earthquake was unusually large in a geographical sense. There was a shift of about 1200 km (according to some estimates - 1600 km) of rock at a distance of 15 m along the subduction zone, as a result of which the Indian plate moved under the Burma plate. The shift was not one-time, but was divided into two phases within a few minutes. Seismographic data indicate that the first phase formed a fault approximately 400 km by 100 km, located at about 30 km above sea level. The fault formed at a speed of about 2 km/s, starting from the Ase coast towards the northwest for about 100 seconds. Then there was a pause of about 100 seconds, after which the fault continued to form north towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The displacement of tectonic plates caused the movement of a huge amount of water with an energy equal to 23 thousand nuclear charges dropped on Hiroshima.
Some small islands southwest of Sumatra have been shifted southwest by up to 20 meters. The northern end of Sumatra, which is located on the Burma Plate (the southern regions of the Sunda Plate), can also be shifted 36 meters to the southwest. The shift was both vertical and lateral; some coastal areas are now below sea level.
The reported death toll from the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent flooding fluctuates greatly due to confusion and conflicting reports from the field. The total number of deaths is estimated at about 235 thousand people, tens of thousands are missing, more than a million people were left without a roof over their heads. Losses were initially reported, measured in hundreds of lives, but over the next week the number of known casualties increased dramatically. On the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, waves 7-9 meters high destroyed an overcrowded Samudra Devi passenger train near the coast, killing about 1,700 people - the largest railway disaster in world history.
Charities report that . This is a result of the high proportion of children in the settlements of many of the affected regions and the fact that children were the least able to resist the rising waters.
In addition to the huge number of local residents, over 9,000 foreign tourists (mostly Europeans) who spent their holidays in the regions hit by the tsunami died or went missing, especially tourists from the Scandinavian countries. Perhaps the heaviest blow from the European countries was inflicted on Sweden - 60 dead and 1300 missing are reported.
Coast of Sri Lanka
The water receded by 100 m
tsunami strike
A state of emergency has been declared in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Maldives. The UN has announced that the current rescue operation will be the most costly ever undertaken. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the reconstruction would take five to ten years. Governments and non-governmental organizations feared that the final death toll could double as a result of disease.
In terms of the number of victims, the earthquake was one of the 10 most destructive in history. It is also one of the worst tsunamis in history, the previous "record" was held by the 1703 tsunami in Awa (Japan), when about 100,000 people died.
On December 23, 2004, there were two earthquakes, magnitude 8.1 in Tasmania and 8.2 in Auckland. After that, on December 24, 2004, real-time seismographs showed global wave activity around the world.
Earthquakes are recorded on seismographs in the form of pointed graphs. And this wave activity is not a sign of earthquakes, but. On December 26, 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake in Sumatra triggered a huge tsunami. Geologists reported that the Earth subsequently "rang like a bell" for several days, and the following day, December 27, 2004, this wave activity was again observed in the magma.
On December 26, 2004, Sumatra suffered a magnitude 9.1 earthquake, although it took several months for the USGS to acknowledge that it was about that magnitude. The tear along the fault line between the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates, shared by India and Australia, was eventually recognized to be 700 miles long. It was also the earthquake that would start the movement towards the end of the world. The December 26, 2004 earthquake was preceded by two earthquakes on December 23, magnitude 8.1 in Tasmania and 8.2 in Auckland, one after the other, both close to the magnetic South Pole. Casey reported:
Questioner: How soon will changes in terrestrial activity begin to become apparent?
Answer: When the first disturbance of certain conditions occurs in one of the South Seas, and these disturbances in the form of an obvious depression or rise appear almost in the opposite place, or in the Mediterranean Sea and in the region of Mount Etna, then we can consider that this has begun.
311-8; April 9, 1932
These initial faults, close enough to the South Magnetic Pole, originated in an area directly opposite the Mediterranean. Casey states that this will be followed by a sinking or rising of the earth in the Mediterranean region. On January 13, 2005, it was reported that this had already happened - the level of the Mediterranean Sea in Venice, during the high tide season, became surprisingly and unseasonably low, in the west of the sea, near Barcelona and in the east, in Croatia; the populace cannot remember that the shores were exposed so much at such a time. Casey predicts a pole shift will happen in our future, but doesn't give an exact date
Question: What big change or the beginning of what change, if any, should take place on Earth in 2000-2001 AD?
Answer: When the pole shift occurs. Or a new cycle begins.
826-8; August 11, 1936
What could have pushed such a large platform as the Indo-Australian out of its blockade, formed on all edges at depths of several miles by rock breaks, interlocked in an infinite number of places and preventing any movement at all? What force can cause these stone teeth to break for 600 miles along Sumatra? This is the Torque that the globe will experience when the north magnetic pole is pushed violently one way and the south magnetic pole is pulled the other way. In these days that come months later, this tension increases as Planet X not only moves closer and occupies more, but also turns its N Pole towards Earth, this hose that throws out magnetic particles, as it maneuvers to line up along the lines of magnetic flux, above the solar equator. Therefore, the attraction of the south magnetic pole of the Earth will become stronger. And the repulsion of its north magnetic pole will be stronger. The entire Indo-Australian Plate is now detached and in motion, starting with a rock break south of Tasmania where the plate is adjacent to the south magnetic pole. Turning this place to the left and holding back from spinning further as the magnetic N Pole of Planet X is reluctant to let go due to the Earth's magnetic N Pole pushing to the right, the platform is pushed out of its clinch where it detached from New Zealand. The rock gave up within a few days, breaking in a curve around Sumatra.
A person looks at the so-called Continental Drift and cannot figure out how the movement in various directions (of a hypothetical single continent) of Pangea could have arisen. The forces that can cause a rocky platform to break and keep doing what it is are something he chooses not to consider. Why is the Indo-Australian Plate submerging under the Himalayas? And what put the platforms in this position? Why did the breaks in the Sea Route of St. Lawrence, the African Rift Valley, the Atlantic gap while the Pacific is shrinking? Why didn’t these rocky foundations simply resist all the time, continuing to maintain the status quo that had once arisen? This torque on the south magnetic pole is not only pushing the Indo-Australian Plate, indicating that this is only part of the pressure that the Pole Wobble is causing. This wobble is due to the strong repulsion of Earth's magnetic N Pole as it faces the emerging N Pole of Planet X. There is also a strange lack of tension along the N American Plate, probably under the same compressive pressure as the rest of the Pacific Ring of Fire!
US Geological Survey National Information Center
Put your hand on the North Pole of the globe and turn it to the right, as if you want to unscrew the lid of the jar. Put your other hand on the South Pole of the globe, turning it to the left, as when opening a can - in this case, the platforms of the Earth move apart. In this case, you not only push the Indo-Australian plate, the Pacific Ocean disappears and sinks with the Philippine plates located under Asia, you reduce the pressure on the entire North American continent! This is the force that pushes the north magnetic pole away whenever it faces Planet X. A step forward, a push back, these are the impulses received from Planet X that cause . Why is it that Central and South America, as well as parts of the Ring of Fire, do not avoid such an impact, but the platform on which the north magnetic Pole is located does? He is far away! For those who don't follow the Pole Wobble, thinking that the world is all right as the Sun rises and sets as usual and the world continues to spin, this is meaningless to consider. There is no other explanation for this massive earthquake. No one.
Of the ten biggest earthquakes of the past century, half have occurred in the last ten years, or since Planet X entered the solar system. And of course we can assume that they have been underestimated by the US Geological Survey all these past ten years.
1. Valdivia, Chile May 22, 1960 Magnitude 9.5
2. Prince William Sound, Alaska. March 28, 1964 Magnitude 9.2
3. Sumatra, Indonesia. December 26, 2004 Magnitude 9.1
4. Sendai, Japan March 11, 2011 Magnitude 9.0
5. Kamchatka, Russia. November 4, 1952 Magnitude 9.0
6. Bio-Bio, Chile. February 27, 2010 Magnitude 8.8
7. Off the coast of Ecuador. January 31, 1906 Magnitude 8.8
8. Rat Islands, Alaska April 2, 1965 Magnitude 8.7
9. Sumatra, Indonesia. April 11, 2012 Magnitude 8.6
10. Sumatra, Indonesia. March 28, 2005 Magnitude 8.6
Tsunamis have been a nightmare for the inhabitants of the islands for all ages. These multi-meter waves swept away everything in their path with tremendous destructive force, leaving behind only bare earth and debris. The statistics of monstrous waves have been conducted by scientists since the nineteenth century, during this period more than a hundred tsunamis of various power were recorded. Do you know what were the biggest tsunamis in the world?
Tsunami: what is it?
It is not surprising that the term "tsunami" was first introduced by the Japanese. They suffered from giant waves most often, because the Pacific Ocean gives rise to the largest number of destructive waves than all other seas and oceans combined. This is due to the peculiarities of the relief of the ocean floor and the high seismicity of the region. In Japanese, the word "tsunami" consists of two hieroglyphs meaning a bay and a wave. Thus, the very meaning of the phenomenon is revealed - a wave in the bay, sweeping away all life on the coast.
When was the first tsunami recorded?
Of course, tsunamis have always suffered. Ordinary island residents came up with their own names for the killer waves and believed that the gods of the seas punish people by sending destructive waves at them.
For the first time, a tsunami was officially recorded and explained at the end of the sixteenth century. This was done by a monk of the Jesuit church, Jose de Acosta, he was in Peru, when a wave about twenty-five meters high hit the shore. She swept away all the settlements around in a few seconds and advanced ten kilometers deep into the continent.
Tsunami: causes and consequences
Tsunamis are most often caused by earthquakes and underwater volcanic eruptions. The closer the epicenter of the earthquake is to the coast, the stronger the killer wave will be. The largest tsunamis in the world that were recorded by mankind could reach speeds of up to one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour and exceed three hundred meters in height. Such waves do not leave a chance to survive for any of the living beings that are on their way.
If we consider the nature of this phenomenon, then briefly it can be explained as the simultaneous displacement of a large amount of water masses. Eruptions or earthquakes raise the ocean floor sometimes by several meters, which causes water vibrations and forms several waves that diverge from the epicenter in different directions. Initially, they do not represent something terrible and deadly, but as they approach the coast, the speed and height of the wave increases, and it turns into a tsunami.
In some cases, tsunamis are formed as a result of giant landslides. During the twentieth century, about seven percent of all gigantic waves arose for this reason.
The consequences of the devastation left behind by the largest tsunamis in the world are terrible: thousands of human victims and hundreds of kilometers of land filled with debris and mud. In addition, in the disaster area, there is a high probability of the spread of infectious diseases due to the lack of drinking water and the decay of the bodies of the dead, the search for which is not always possible to organize in the shortest possible time.
Tsunami: is it possible to escape?
Unfortunately, the global tsunami warning system is still imperfect. At best, people learn about the danger a few minutes before the wave hits, so you need to know the signs of impending disaster and the rules for survival during a cataclysm.
If you are on the sea or ocean coast, then carefully follow the reports of earthquakes. A shaking of the earth's crust with a magnitude of about seven on the Richter scale that occurred somewhere nearby could serve as a warning of a possible tsunami strike. The approach of a killer wave gives out a sudden ebb - the ocean floor is quickly exposed for several kilometers. This is a clear sign of a tsunami. Moreover, the further the water goes, the stronger and more destructive the incoming wave will be. Animals often anticipate such natural disasters: a few hours before the cataclysm, they whine, hide, and try to go deep into the island or mainland.
To survive during a tsunami, you need to leave the dangerous area as soon as possible. Do not take a lot of things with you, drinking water, food and documents will be enough. Try to get as far away from the coast as possible or climb to the roof of a multi-storey building. All floors after the ninth are considered safe.
If the wave still overtakes you, then find an object that you can hold on to. According to statistics, most people die when the wave begins to return back to the ocean and takes away all the objects that have come across. Keep in mind that tsunamis almost never end in one wave. Most often, the first will be followed by a series of two or even three new ones.
So, when was the biggest tsunami in the world? And how much destruction did they bring?
This catastrophe does not fit any of the previously described incidents on the sea coast. To date, the Lituya Bay megatsunami has become the most gigantic and destructive in the world. Eminent luminaries in the field of oceanology and seismology are still arguing about the possibility of a repetition of such a nightmare.
Lituya Bay is located in Alaska and extends inland for eleven kilometers, its maximum width does not exceed three kilometers. Two glaciers descend into the bay, which became the unwitting creators of a huge wave. The 1958 tsunami in Alaska was caused by an earthquake on July 9th. The power of the shocks exceeded eight points, which caused a huge landslide to descend into the waters of the bay. Scientists calculated that thirty million cubic meters of ice and stones fell into the water in a few seconds. Parallel to the landslide, an under-ice lake sank thirty meters, from which the released water masses rushed into the bay.
A huge wave rushed to the coast and circled the bay several times. The height of the tsunami wave reached five hundred meters, the raging elements completely demolished the trees on the rocks along with the ground. At the moment, this wave is the highest in the history of mankind. The surprising fact is that only five people died as a result of a powerful tsunami. The fact is that there are no residential settlements in the bay; at the time the wave arrived in Lituya, there were only three fishing boats. One of them, together with the crew, immediately sank, and the other was raised by a wave to its maximum height and carried out into the ocean.
2004 Indian Ocean avalanche
The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 shocked all people on the planet. As a result of the destructive wave, more than two hundred thousand people died. The cause of the disaster was an earthquake in the Sumatra region on December 26, 2004. The tremors lasted no more than ten minutes and exceeded nine on the Richter scale.
A thirty-meter wave swept at great speed throughout the Indian Ocean and circled it, stopping near Peru. Almost all island states, including India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Somalia, suffered from the tsunami.
After killing several hundred thousand people, the 2004 Thailand tsunami left behind destroyed houses, hotels and several thousand local residents who died as a result of infections and poor-quality drinking water. At the moment, this tsunami is considered the largest in the twenty-first century.
Severo-Kurilsk: tsunami in the USSR
The list of "The biggest tsunamis in the world" should include the wave that hit the Kuriles in the middle of the last century. An earthquake in the Pacific Ocean caused a twenty-meter wave. The epicenter of the tremors of magnitude seven was located one hundred and thirty kilometers from the coast.
The first wave arrived in the city about an hour later, but most of the locals were in hiding on the high ground away from the city. No one warned them that a tsunami was a series of waves, so all the townspeople returned to their homes after the first one. A few hours later, the second and third waves hit Severo-Kurilsk. Their height reached eighteen meters, they almost completely destroyed the city. More than 2,000 people died as a result of the cataclysm.
Killer wave in Chile
In the second half of the last century, the inhabitants of Chile faced a terrifying tsunami, which killed more than three thousand people. The cause of the giant waves was the most powerful earthquake in the history of mankind, its magnitude exceeded nine and a half points.
A twenty-five-meter high wave covered Chile fifteen minutes after the first shocks. During the day, she covered several thousand kilometers, destroying the coast of Hawaii and Japan.
Despite the fact that humanity has been "familiar" with the tsunami for quite a long time, this natural phenomenon is still among the little-studied. Scientists have not learned how to predict the appearance of killer waves, therefore, most likely, in the future the list of their victims will be replenished with new deaths.
The biggest waves in the world are legendary. The stories about them are impressive, the painted pictures are amazing. But many believe that in reality there are no such high ones, and eyewitnesses simply exaggerate. Modern methods of tracking and fixing leave no doubt: giant waves exist, this is an indisputable fact.
What are they
The study of the seas and oceans using modern instruments and knowledge made it possible to classify the degree of their excitement not only by the strength of the storm in points. There is another criterion - the causes of occurrence:
- killer waves: these are giant wind waves;
- tsunamis: occur as a result of the movement of tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions;
- coastal ones appear in places with a special bottom topography;
- underwater (seiches and microseiches): they are usually invisible from the surface, but they can be no less dangerous than surface ones.
The mechanics of the occurrence of the largest waves is completely different, as are the height and speed records set by them. Therefore, we will consider each category separately, and find out what heights they conquered.
killer waves
It is hard to imagine that a huge tall solitary killer wave really exists. But over the past decades, this statement has become a proven fact: they were recorded by special buoys and satellites. This phenomenon has been well studied in the framework of the MaxWave international project, created to monitor all the seas and oceans of the world, where satellites of the European Space Agency were used. And scientists used computer simulations to understand the causes of such giants.
An interesting fact: it was found that small waves are able to merge with each other, as a result of which their total strength and height are summed up. And when meeting with any natural barrier (shoal, reef), “wedging out” occurs, this further increases the strength of the waves of water.
Killer waves (they are also called solitons) arise as a result of natural processes: cyclones and typhoons change atmospheric pressure, its changes can cause resonance, which provokes the appearance of the highest water columns in the world. They are able to move at great speed (up to 180 km / h) and rise to incredible heights (theoretically up to 60 m). Although these have not yet been observed, the recorded data is impressive:
- in 2012 in the southern hemisphere - 22.03 meters;
- in 2013 in the north of the Atlantic - 19;
- and a new record: near New Zealand on the night of May 8-9, 2018 - 23.8 meters.
These highest waves in the world have been observed by buoys and satellites, and there is documentary evidence of their existence. So skeptics can no longer deny the existence of solitons. Their study is an important matter, because such a mass of water moving at great speed is capable of sinking any ship, even an ultra-modern liner.
Unlike the previous ones, tsunamis occur as a result of serious natural disasters. They are much higher than solitons and have incredible destructive power, even those that do not reach special heights. And they are dangerous not so much to those who are at sea as to residents of coastal cities. A powerful momentum during an eruption or earthquake raises giant layers of water, they are able to reach speeds of up to 800 km / h, and fall on the coast with incredible force. In the "risk zone" - bays with high coasts, seas and oceans with underwater volcanoes, areas with increased seismic activity. Lightning speed of occurrence, incredible speed, huge destructive power - this is how all known tsunamis can be characterized.
Here are a few examples that will convince everyone of the dangers of the highest waves in the world:
- 2011, Honshu Island: After an earthquake, a tsunami 40 meters high hit the coast of Japan, killing more than 15,000 people, and many thousands more are still missing. And the coast is completely destroyed.
- 2004, Thailand, the islands of Sumatra and Java: after an earthquake of magnitude more than 9 points, a monstrous tsunami with a height of more than 15 m swept across the ocean, the victims were in various places. Even in South Africa, people were dying 7,000 km from the epicenter. In total, about 300,000 people died.
- 1896, Honshu island: more than 10 thousand houses were destroyed, about 27 thousand people died;
- 1883, after the eruption of Krakatoa: a tsunami about 40 meters high swept from Java and Sumatra, where more than 35 thousand people died (some historians believe that there were much more victims, about 200,000). And then, at a speed of 560 km / h, the tsunami crossed the Pacific and Indian oceans, past Africa, Australia and America. And reached the Atlantic Ocean: in Panama and France, changes in the water level were noted.
But the biggest wave in the history of mankind should be recognized as the tsunami in Lituya Bay in Alaska. Skeptics may doubt, but the fact remains: after the earthquake on the Fairweather fault on July 9, 1958, a supertsunami was formed. A giant column of water 524 meters high at a speed of about 160 km / h crossed the bay and the island of Cenotaphia, rolling over its highest point. In addition to eyewitness accounts of this catastrophe, there are other confirmations, for example, uprooted trees on the highest point of the island. The most surprising thing is that the casualties were minimal, the crew members of one longboat were killed. And the other, located nearby, was simply thrown over the island, and he ended up in the open ocean.
coastal waves
The constant roughness of the sea in narrow bays is not uncommon. Features of the coastline can provoke high and rather dangerous surf. Unrest of the water element can initially arise as a result of storms, the collision of ocean currents, at the "junction" of waters, for example, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It should be noted that such phenomena are permanent. Therefore, we can name especially dangerous places. These are Bermuda, Cape Horn, the southern coast of Africa, the coast of Greece, the Norwegian shelves.
Such places are well known to sailors. It is not for nothing that Cape Horn has long enjoyed a “bad reputation” among sailors.
But in Portugal, in the small village of Nazare, the power of the sea began to be used for peaceful purposes. Surfers have chosen this coast, every winter a period of storms begins here and you can ride waves of 25-30 meters in height. It was here that the famous surfer Garrett McNamara set world records. The coasts of California, Hawaii and Tahiti are also popular with conquerors of the water element.
Underwater unrest
Not much is known about this phenomenon. Ocean scientists suggest that seiches and microseiches result from differences in water density. It is on the border of such a watershed that seiches occur. The layer separating the waters of different density first slowly rises, and then suddenly and sharply falls by almost 100 meters. Moreover, such movement is practically not felt on the surface. But for submarines, such a phenomenon is just a disaster. They abruptly fall to a depth where the pressure can many times exceed the strength of the hull. When investigating the causes of the death of the Thresher nuclear submarine in 1963, the seiches were the main version and the most plausible.
The biggest waves in history are most often associated with tragedies. Ships and people perished, coasts and infrastructure were destroyed, huge liners were washed ashore and entire cities were washed into the water. But it must be admitted that a huge column of water rushing at an incredible speed makes an indelible impression. This spectacle will always frighten and fascinate at the same time.
More than half a million people became victims
text: Ilya Kabanov
Detecting a tsunami is difficult. At the moment when the wave is far from the shore, it is not high enough to be recorded by the sensors. Although today scientists still do not fully understand the nature of the tsunami, mechanisms have already been developed that, in some cases, can warn residents of dangerous areas in advance about the approach of a disaster. But the main weapon against the tsunami is knowledge. The more people know about the tsunami, the higher the chances of surviving the disaster.
Vasily Titov, a researcher at the Tsunami Research Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle (USA), will give a lecture on tsunami warning at the Geek Picnic festival in St. Petersburg, which will be held on August 18-19.
2004 Indian Ocean
On the morning of December 26, 2004, a strong earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a 30-meter-high tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 11 countries. This is the most powerful and deadly tsunami ever observed. Indonesia was hit hardest, with 168,000 deaths. In addition, residents of Bangladesh, India, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania and other countries became victims. Scientists call such phenomena teletsunamis - in a few hours they pass from one ocean shore to another. In a couple of hours, the tsunami reached the coast of India, and seven hours later the wave reached Somalia. 16 hours after the earthquake, waves one and a half meters high were recorded in South Africa - at a distance of 8500 km from the epicenter.
According to experts, the total wave energy of this tsunami was twice the energy of all military projectiles detonated during World War II, including two atomic bombs. In some places, the waves went inland up to four kilometers. After the 2004 disaster, international organizations called for the creation of a global tsunami monitoring system.
1958 Lituya Bay
Usually the height of a tsunami does not exceed tens of meters, but from time to time natural disasters occur on a much larger scale. The record belongs to the tsunami in Lituya Bay in Alaska, whose height exceeded half a kilometer - 524 meters. A powerful earthquake in the mountain range caused a strong landslide - tens of millions of cubic meters of rock and ice fell into the waters of the bay. The resulting giant wave caused destruction at an altitude of more than 500 meters above sea level. Five people became victims of the tsunami - the sparsely populated areas played a role.
1908 Strait of Messina
An earthquake in the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula caused a displacement of bottom sections, which led to the formation of a series of tsunamis. In an hour, three waves up to 12 meters high hit the coast on both sides of the strait. The victims of the tsunami were thousands of people who were trapped - on the shore they were looking for salvation from the earthquake. The total death toll from the natural disaster exceeded 120,000 people. The sailors of four Russian warships participated in the rescue operation - a century later a monument was erected in Messina in their honor.
1883, Krakatoa
In 1883, a volcanic eruption destroyed much of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa. As a result of the eruption itself and the tsunami caused by it, according to various estimates, from 36 to 120 thousand people died. In addition, after the eruption, the average summer temperature in the northern hemisphere fell by 1.2 degrees Celsius. The consequences of the tsunami were recorded even in southern Africa, and the Indonesian city of Merak was destroyed by a wave 46 meters high. The sound of the explosion that destroyed the island was heard thousands of kilometers away - researchers call it the loudest sound in history. Krakatoa is a vivid example of the fact that scientists still have more questions about the seismic sources of a tsunami than answers. It is still not known exactly how the tsunami at Krakatoa originated.
365, Mediterranean Sea
No less destructive could be the earthquake of 365 and the tsunami caused by it, although it is impossible to accurately estimate the number of victims for obvious reasons. Contemporaries wrote about "many thousands" of the dead. Today, researchers believe that up to 50 thousand people could become victims of a natural disaster. To compensate for the damage to the economy from the tsunami, the Roman emperor Valentinian I went on an unprecedented tax increase. Archaeological excavations confirm the scale of the disaster: in the region of 365, most of the cities in the southeast of the Mediterranean were destroyed.
The ancient Roman historian Ammian Marcellinus described the tsunami as follows: “The strength of the earth shook - it began to tremble and shake. Then the sea receded, but the waves quickly returned so that everything disappeared in chaos and the depths of the sea. Many creatures belonging to the sea were thrown onto the land, covering everything with slime, dregs and garbage covered the valleys and mountains completely.
The ships, according to the historian, ended up on the roofs of houses. In some places they were found at a distance of three kilometers from the coast. According to experts, such large-scale underwater earthquakes occur about once every 5,000 years. At the same time, a repetition of any of the tsunamis that occurred before the 20th century in the Mediterranean Sea and near the coasts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans is likely to lead to much more terrible victims due to increased population density.
To learn more about the tsunami, visit Geek Picnic. Tickets can be purchased on the festival website. For GEO readers, there is a 10% discount using the GEO promo code.
Tsunamis produced by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are considered the most dangerous natural phenomena on Earth. In the past two decades alone, giant waves and tremors have combined to kill 55% of the 1.35 million people who have died from natural disasters. Throughout its history, mankind has experienced many such disasters, but in this article we bring to your attention the ten most destructive and deadly tsunamis ever recorded on our planet.
1. Sumatra (Indonesia), December 24, 2004
At the end of December 2004, off the coast of Sumatra, at a depth of about 30 km, there was a powerful earthquake of magnitude 9.1, caused by a vertical displacement of the seabed. As a result of the seismic event, a large wave with a width of about 1300 km was formed, which, as it approached the coast, reached a height of 15 meters. A giant wall of water hit the shores of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and several other states, leaving between 225,000 and 300,000 dead. Many people were swept into the ocean, so the exact numbers of deaths are unlikely to ever be known. According to general estimates, the damage from the disaster amounted to about 10 billion US dollars.
2. Pacific Northwest (Japan), March 11, 2011
On March 11, 2011, a huge 10-meter wave moving at a speed of 800 km/h swept over the east coast of Japan and led to the death or disappearance of over 18,000 people. The reason for its appearance was an earthquake of magnitude 9.0, which occurred at a depth of 32 km east of the island of Honshu. Some 452,000 Japanese survivors were moved to temporary shelters. Many live in them to this day. The earthquake and tsunami caused an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, after which significant radioactive releases occurred. The total damage amounted to $235 billion.
3. Lisbon (Portugal), November 1, 1755
An earthquake of magnitude 8.5 in the Atlantic caused a series of three huge waves that covered the Portuguese capital and a number of coastal cities in Portugal, Spain and Morocco. In some places, the height of the tsunami reached 30 meters. The waves crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached Barbados, where their height was 1.5 meters. Overall, the tremor and subsequent tsunami killed about 60,000 people.
4. Krakatoa (Indonesia), August 27, 1883
The volcanic eruption in 1883 was one of the largest in modern human history. The explosions of the giant were so powerful that they caused high waves that flooded the surrounding islands. After the volcano split and collapsed into the ocean, the largest tsunami 36 meters high was formed, destroying over 160 villages on the islands of Sumatra and Java. Of the more than 36,000 who died during the eruption, over 90% of the people were victims of the tsunami.
5. Nankaido (Japan), September 20, 1498
According to general estimates, the earthquake that shook the islands in the southeast of Japan had a magnitude of at least 8.4. A seismic event led to a tsunami that hit the Japanese provinces of Kii, Awaji and the coast of the island of Shikoku. The waves were strong enough to demolish the isthmus that previously separated Lake Hamana from the ocean. Flooding was observed throughout the historical region of Nankaido, and the death toll reached, presumably, from 26,000 to 31,000 people.
6. Nankaido (Japan), October 28, 1707
Another devastating tsunami, caused by an earthquake of magnitude 8.4, hit Japan's Nankaido in 1707. The wave height was 25 meters. The settlements on the coast of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu were damaged, and the large Japanese city of Osaka was also damaged. The disaster resulted in the destruction of over 30,000 homes and the death of about 30,000 people. It is estimated that about a dozen tsunamis hit Japan that day in just 1 hour, some of them traveled several kilometers inland.
7. Sanriku (Japan), June 15, 1896
The tsunami in the northeastern part of the island of Honshu was caused by an earthquake of magnitude 7.2, caused by a shift in the lithospheric plates in the area of the Japan Trench. After the earthquake, the Sanriku region was hit by two waves one after the other, rising to a height of up to 38 meters. Since the arrival of the water coincided with the tide, the damage from the disaster was incredibly high. More than 22,00 people died and over 9,000 buildings were destroyed. The tsunami also reached the Hawaiian Islands, but here their height was much less - about 9 meters.
8. Northern Chile, August 13, 1868
The tsunami in northern Chile (at that time off the coast of Arica in Peru) was caused by a series of two large-scale earthquakes of magnitude 8.5. Waves up to 21 meters high flooded the entire Asia-Pacific region and reached the Australian Sydney. The waters crashed onto the banks for 2 or 3 days, eventually resulting in 25,000 deaths and $300 million worth of damage.
9. Ryukyu (Japan), April 24, 1771
Boulders thrown by the tsunami
An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 caused a tsunami that flooded many Japanese islands. Ishigaki and Miyako suffered the most, where the wave height reached 11 to 15 meters. The disaster resulted in the destruction of 3,137 houses and the death of about 12,000 people.
10. Ise Bay (Japan), January 18, 1586
Ise Bay today
The earthquake that caused the tsunami in Ise Bay on the island of Honshu received a magnitude of 8.2. Waves rose to a height of 6 meters, causing damage to settlements on the coast. The city of Nagahama suffered not only from water, but also from fires that broke out after the earthquake and destroyed half of the buildings. The tsunami in the bay killed more than 8,000 people.
