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The magnitude 9.5 earthquake of 22 May 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, generated one of the most destructive tsunamis of the 20th century. The tsunami spread across the Pacific Ocean, with waves measuring up to 25 metres (82 ft) high in places. The first tsunami wave hit Hilo, Hawaii, approximately 15 hours after its origin. The ...
A particularly dangerous form of slow earthquake is the tsunami earthquake, observed where the relatively low felt intensities, caused by the slow propagation speed of some great earthquakes, fail to alert the population of the neighboring coast, as in the 1896 Sanriku earthquake.
Tsunamis have a small wave height offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometres long, whereas normal ocean waves have a wavelength of only 30 or 40 metres), [39] which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 300 millimetres (12 in) above the normal sea surface.
On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.2-magnitude earthquake shook Southeast Asia, triggering the worst tsunami in recorded history. According to United Nations estimates, more than 220,000 people were killed ...
Analysis of tsunami earthquakes such as the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake shows that the release of seismic moment takes place at an unusually long period. Calculations of the effective moment derived from surface waves show a rapid increase with decrease in the frequency of the seismic waves, whereas for ordinary earthquakes it remains almost constant with frequency.
Moderately damaging earthquakes strike between New York and Wilmington, Delaware, about twice a century, the USGS said, and smaller earthquakes are felt in the region roughly every two to three years.
A silent colossus lurks off the Pacific coast, threatening hundreds of miles of coastline with tsunamis and devastating earthquakes. For decades, scientists have warned about the potential of the ...
Diagram showing how earthquakes can generate a tsunami. Tsunamis in lakes can be generated by fault displacement beneath or around lake systems. Faulting shifts the ground in a vertical motion through reverse, normal or oblique strike slip faulting processes, this displaces the water above causing a tsunami (Figure 1).