• Question: How do you know if there will be a tsunami?

    Asked by AmiePanda to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      @AmiePanda first of all there has to be an earthquake under the ocean. Depending on the size of the quake and the type, the ocean floor could be pushed up literally pushing water into a giant wave. There are seismic stations around the world that detect earthquakes, and if there is a big one under the oceans, tsunami warnings go out to the local communities. If you are standing on a beach, you can tell if there is going to be a tsunami because there is a very sudden very large retreat of water before it all comes back in a big wave. But you don’t have much time so run as fast as you can and get as high as you can. However, tsunamis only occur in certain regions of the world, like japan – you will never get them in the UK.

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Very specific types of earthquakes cause tsunamis; the earthquake has to be underwater, and the slip point has to be near the surface. If you have both of these things, and the correct ocean geography, you can cause a tsunami. Generally we have a good handle on the places on Earth that these conditions exist – all along the Pacific and Indian Oceans are the most probable locations for tsunami earthquakes. That said, sometimes a tsunami is predicted and it doesn’t happen, so it’s not a perfect system yet!

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