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Understanding plate tectonics helps to explain the cause of submarine earthquakes. The Earth's surface or lithosphere comprises tectonic plates which average approximately 80 km (50 mi) in thickness, and are continuously moving very slowly upon a bed of magma in the asthenosphere and inner mantle.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was triggered by a megathrust earthquake along the convergent boundary of the Indian plate and Burma microplate and killed over 200,000 people. The 2011 tsunami off the coast of Japan, which caused 16,000 deaths and did US$360 billion in damage, was caused by a magnitude 9 megathrust earthquake along ...
While Japan may have the longest recorded history of tsunamis, [23] [better source needed] the sheer destruction caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami event mark it as the most devastating of its kind in modern times, killing around 230,000 people. [24]
About 2,000 people killed along the west coast of Japan from the resulting tsunami. Homes and fishing boats destroyed in Korea. [15] Tsunami magnitude calculated at M t 8.4; largest tsunami in the region. [16] 1792 Shiribeshi: Earthquake (M 7.1) At least five people killed in Oshoro by the tsunami and additional tsunami casualties at Bikuni. [17]
In the Himalayan region, where the Indian plate subducts under the Eurasian plate, the largest recorded earthquake was the 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake, at magnitude 8.7. It is estimated that earthquakes with magnitude 9.0 or larger are expected to occur at an interval of every 800 years, with the highest boundary being a magnitude 10, though ...
Subduction is the driving force behind plate tectonics, and without it, plate tectonics could not occur. [12] Oceanic subduction zones are located along 55,000 km (34,000 mi) of convergent plate margins, [ 13 ] almost equal to the cumulative plate formation rate 60,000 km (37,000 mi) of mid-ocean ridges.
Normal tsunamis result from displacement of the sea floor due to movements in the Earth's crust (plate tectonics). Powerful earthquakes may cause the sea floor to displace vertically on the order of tens of metres, which in turn displaces the water column above and leads to the formation of a tsunami.
A tsunami earthquake can be defined as an undersea earthquake for which the surface-wave magnitude M s differs markedly from the moment magnitude M w, because the former is calculated from surface waves with a period of about 20 seconds, whereas the latter is a measure of the total energy release at all frequencies. [2]