Q&A: General Tsunami Information
- Is there a scale associated with the severity of a tsunami?
- Do tsunamis have names like hurricanes have names?
- How far does a tsunami wave travel?
- Which are bigger, in terms of wave height, tidal waves or tsunamis?
- Does the viscosity of the water affect the tsunami?
Is there a scale associated with the severity of a tsunami?
Yes, there is a tsunami magnitude scale. The scale has many factors.
For a Richter magnitude it is the acceleration of the ground motion;
for a tsunami scale there are many more factors than the Richter scale. [Email
for more information] - Elena Suleimani, Tsunami Modeler/Research
Analyst
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Do tsunamis have names like hurricanes have names?
No. Hurricanes are events that happen every year and we know for sure they
will happen during the hurricane season. Forecasters can watch how they
form and travel, and during that process they give them names. Unfortunately,
tsunamis are not predictable; they don’t happen regularly. That’s
why they don’t have names. After they happen, they give them names,
which usually tell the general location they happened at, such as the
Indonesian Tsunami of 2004 or the Alaskan Tsunami of 1964. - Elena
Suleimani, Tsunami Modeler/Research Analyst
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How far does a tsunami wave travel?
A tsunami wave can travel around the globe and maybe more than
once. In the case of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami it traveled around
the globe and was recorded in Kodiak and everywhere along the Pacific
Ocean. It’s a pretty powerful wave. - Elena Suleimani, Tsunami
Modeler/Research Analyst
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Which are bigger, in terms of wave height, tidal waves or tsunamis?
Tsunami waves could be much higher than tidal waves. It depends on the
size of the tsunami waves. Some tsunami waves are as high as tides, and
some are much higher than tides. - Elena Suleimani, Tsunami Modeler/Research
Analyst
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Does the viscosity of the water affect the tsunami?
No. The viscosity of water is a very small factor. In some problems you
need to take viscosity of account, but tsunamis have such a large scale
that viscosity plays a minor role. If we are talking about very small
waves on the surface of the water, like capillary waves, or waves caused
by wind on the water; those waves you need to take viscosity into account,
but not with tsunami waves. It’s a good question. - Elena Suleimani,
Tsunami Modeler/Research Analyst
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