NS 120 EARTH SCIENCE RESEARCH PROJECT

NS 120 Earth Science Research Project

NS 120 Earth Science Research Project

Introduction

This study consider the current state of our planet and determine Tsunamis are most likely to cause the most damage to physical structures and habitat, the most loss of life to both human and non-human animals, and the greatest financial impact within your lifetime. Tsunamis are among the most terrifying natural hazards known to man and have been responsible for tremendous loss of life and property throughout history. (Tuttle, Ruffman, Anderson, and Jeter, 2004) Because of their destructiveness, tsunami has important impact on the human, social and economic sectors of our societies. Within the next 50 years the coming disasters of Tsunamis may change the map of the world. Human and animals can be victims and the amount of financial loss is not so easy to predict.

In the Pacific Ocean where the majority of these waves have been generated, the historical record shows tremendous destruction. (Bornhold, Fine, Rabinovich, Thomson, and Kulikov, 2003) In Japan, which has one of the most populated coastal regions in the world and a long history of earthquake activity, tsunamis have destroyed entire coastal populations. There is also a history of tsunami destruction in Alaska, in the Hawaiian Islands in South America and elsewhere in the Pacific, although the historic records for these areas do not go back sufficiently in time.

Various human records also document considerable loss of life and destruction of property on the western shores of the North and South Atlantic, the coastal regions of north-western Europe, and in the seismically active regions around the eastern Caribbean. (Baptista, Miranda, Chierici, Zitellini, 2003) Fortunately tsunami in the Atlantic and the Caribbean do not occur as frequently as in the Pacific. Destructive tsunami have occurred also in the Indian Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea. The most notable tsunami in the region of the Indian Ocean was that associated with the violent explosion of the volcanic island of Krakatoa in August 1883. A 30 meter (100 feet) tsunami resulting from this explosion killed 36,500 people in Java and Sumatra. The violent eruption and explosion of the volcano of Santorin, in the fifteenth Century B.C. generated a tremendous tsunami which destroyed most of the coastal Minoan settlements on the Aegean sea islands acting as the catalyst for the decline of the advanced Minoan civilization.

Nowadays, Japan is very vulnerable to the tsunami hazard. All the major Japanese islands have been struck by devastating tsunamis. A total of 68 destructive tsunami have struck Japan between A.D. 684 and 1984 with thousands of lives lost and with the destruction of-hundreds of villages. In this century alone, at least 6 major destructive tsunamis have hit Japan. On 3 March 1933 a tsunami in the Sanriku area reached a height of about 30 meters and killed over 3,000 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed approximately 9,000 homes and 8,000 boats. Other similarly destructive tsunami occurred in 1944, 1946, 1960, and in ...