IN Japanese The hieroglyph “tsu” is a bay or bay, “nami” is a wave. Together, both hieroglyphs translate as “wave flooding the bay.” The catastrophic consequences of two tsunamis that hit the shores Indian Ocean in 2004 and Japan in 2011, clearly demonstrated that reliable protection against this formidable natural phenomenon has not been found to this day...

Tsunami - what is it?

Contrary to popular belief, a tsunami is not one gigantic wave that suddenly hits the shore and sweeps away everything in its path. In fact, a tsunami is a series of sea gravity waves of very long length, resulting from the displacement of extended sections of the bottom during strong underwater earthquakes or, occasionally, for other reasons - as a result of volcanic eruptions, giant landslides, asteroid falls, underwater nuclear explosions.

How does a tsunami occur?

The most common cause of a tsunami is vertical movement of the bottom during underwater earthquakes. When part of the bottom sinks and part rises, the mass of water begins to oscillate. In this case, the water surface tends to return to its original level - the average ocean level - and thus generates a series of waves.

The speed of tsunami propagation at a sea depth of 4.5 km exceeds 800 km/h. But the wave height in the open sea is usually small - less than a meter, and the distance between the crests is several hundred kilometers, so a tsunami is not so easy to notice from the deck of a ship or from an airplane. In the vast oceans, encountering a tsunami is not dangerous for any ship. But when waves enter shallow water, their speed and length decrease, and their height increases sharply. Near the coast, the wave height often exceeds 10 m, and in exceptional cases reaches 30-40 m. Then the impact of the elements causes colossal damage to coastal cities.

However, tsunami waves of relatively low height often cause enormous destruction. At first glance, this seems strange: why don’t seemingly more formidable waves that arise during a storm lead to similar casualties? The fact is that the kinetic energy of a tsunami is much higher than that of wind waves: in the first case, the entire thickness of the water moves, and in the second, only the surface layer. As a result, the pressure of water splashing onto land during a tsunami is many times higher than during a storm.

One more factor should not be discounted. During a storm, the excitement increases gradually, and people usually manage to move to a safe distance before they begin to face danger. A tsunami always comes suddenly.

Today, about 1000 cases of tsunamis are known, of which more than a hundred had catastrophic consequences. Geographically, the periphery of the Pacific Ocean is considered the most dangerous region - approximately 80% of all tsunamis occur there.

It is impossible to completely protect the coast from a tsunami, although some countries, especially Japan, have tried to build breakwaters and breakwaters in order to reduce the force of the waves. However, there are cases when these structures played a negative role: tsunamis destroyed them, and pieces of concrete picked up by water flows only aggravated the damage on the shore. Hopes for protection from trees planted along the shore were also not realized. To extinguish the energy of waves, you need too much large area forest plantations, which are simply not the case in most coastal cities. Well, a narrow strip of trees along the embankment cannot provide any resistance to a tsunami.

One of the important measures to protect the population dangerous regions became from the destructive waves international system tsunami warnings issued in the Pacific region. 25 states, including Russia, take part in its work. Scientists different countries Based on a comprehensive analysis of strong earthquake zones, they try to determine whether they caused tsunamis in the past, and what the likelihood of tsunamis occurring in the future is. The system's main research center, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, continuously monitors seismic conditions and surface levels in the Pacific Ocean.

Our country has a tsunami warning service Far East consists of three regional services: Kamchatka, Sakhalin regions and Primorsky Krai. In the Kamchatka region, in particular, there is a tsunami station territorial administration on hydrometeorology and monitoring environment and a seismic station of the Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The most destructive tsunamis of the past

It is possible that the most catastrophic tsunami event in human history occurred in ancient times, although it has come down to us in the form of myths and legends. Around 1450 BC. An entire civilization perished from a giant wave triggered by the Santorini volcano. 120 km from the volcano is Crete, which at that time was one of the most powerful powers in the Mediterranean. But the tsunami at one point caused colossal damage to the island of Crete, from which the previously prosperous state was never able to recover. It collapsed, and many of its cities were abandoned for two and a half thousand years.

Giant tsunami waves followed the devastating earthquake in Lisbon on November 1, 1755. The source of the earthquake was obviously at the bottom of the ocean. The total number of victims from the waves and earthquake is estimated at approximately 60 thousand people.

In 1883, as a result of a series of eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, a powerful tsunami was formed, from which the islands of Java and Sumatra suffered the most. Waves up to 40 m high wiped out about 300 villages from the face of the earth, killing more than 36 thousand people. Near the city of Teluk Betung, a Dutch warship - the gunboat Berouw - was thrown 3 km inland and ended up on a mountainside at an altitude of 9 m above sea level. Seismic waves passed two or three times around the Earth, and unusual red dawns were observed for a long time in Europe from the ash thrown into the atmosphere.

The most destructive tsunami of the 20th century hit the coast of Chile on May 22, 1960. The tsunami and the powerful earthquake that generated it, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, killed 2,000 people, injured 3,000, left two million homeless, and caused $550 million in damage. The same tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii, 20 in the Philippines, 3 in Okinawa and more than 100 in Japan. The wave height on Pitcairn Island reached 13 m, on Hawaii - 12 m.

The most unusual tsunami

In 1958, a tsunami formed in Lituya Bay in Alaska, caused by a giant landslide - about 81 million tons of ice and solid rock fell into the sea as a result of the earthquake. The waves reached an incredible height of 350-500 m - these are the largest waves ever recorded in history! The tsunami washed away all vegetation from the mountain slopes. Fortunately, the shores of the bay were uninhabited, and human casualties were minimal - only two fishermen died.

Tsunami in the Russian Far East

On April 4, 1923, in the Kamchatka Bay there was a strong earthquake. 15-20 minutes later a wave approached the top of the bay. Two fish factories on the coast were completely destroyed, and the village of Ust-Kamchatsk was severely damaged. The ice on the Kamchatka River was broken over a distance of 7 km. 50 km southwest of the village, the maximum height of water rise on the coast was observed - up to 30 m.

On Russian territory, the most catastrophic tsunami occurred on the night of November 4–5, 1952, on the Far Eastern island of Paramushir, where the city of Severo-Kurilsk is located. At about 4 a.m., strong tremors began. Half an hour later the earthquake stopped, and the people who had left their homes returned to their homes. Only a few remained outside and noticed the approaching wave. They managed to take refuge in the hills, but when they went down to inspect the destruction and look for relatives, a second, even more powerful wave of water about 15 m high fell on the city. The captain of one tug stationed in the roadstead of Severo-Kurilsk said that that night the sailors did nothing did not notice, but early in the morning they were surprised by the large amount of garbage floating around and various items. When the morning fog cleared, they saw that there was no city on the shore.

On the same day, the tsunami reached the shores of Kamchatka and caused serious damage to a number of villages. In total, more than 2,000 people died, but in the USSR, until the early 1990s, almost no one knew about the events of that tragic night.

The tsunami that occurred on May 23, 1960, off the coast of Chile, reached the shores of the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka about a day later. The highest level of water rise was 6-7 m, and on the territory of the Khalaktyrsky beach near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - 15 m. In Vilyuchinskaya and Russkaya bays, houses were destroyed and outbuildings were washed into the sea.

Indian Ocean disaster (2004)

After an earthquake measuring about 9 on the Richter scale with an epicenter in the northern part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, which occurred on the night of December 26, 2004, a powerful tsunami covered the Indian Ocean. More than 1000 km of fault line resulting from the movement of large strata earth's crust at the bottom of the ocean, generated a huge release of energy. Waves hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives and Seychelles and reached Somalia, located 5 thousand km from the epicenter of the earthquake. More than 300 thousand people became victims of the tsunami, including foreign tourists from many countries who were vacationing in Indonesia and Thailand in those days. Most of the dead were in Indonesia (more than 180 thousand) and Sri Lanka (about 39 thousand).

Such numerous casualties are largely explained by the lack of basic knowledge among the local population about the impending danger. So, when the sea retreated from the shore, many locals and tourists remained on the shore - out of curiosity or out of a desire to collect the fish remaining in the puddles. In addition, after the first wave, many returned to their homes to assess the damage or try to find loved ones, not knowing that others would follow the first wave.

Tsunami in Japan (2011)

The cause of the tsunami was a strong earthquake of magnitude 9.0-9.1 that occurred on March 11, 2011 at 14:46 local time (8:46 Moscow time). The center of the earthquake was at a depth of 32 km, at a point with coordinates 38.322° N. 142.369°E east of the island of Honshu, 130 km east of the city of Sendai and 373 km northeast of Tokyo. In Japan, the tsunami caused widespread destruction on the east coast. The maximum wave height was observed in Miyagi Prefecture - 10 m. The tsunami flooded the Sendai airport, washed away one passenger train, and caused serious damage to the Fukushima I nuclear power plant. In Sendai alone, the tsunami caused the death of approximately 300 people. The total damage caused to the country's economy amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.

According to official data, the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami was 15,892 people, with another 2,576 people listed as missing. 6,152 people were seriously injured. According to unofficial data, the number of victims is much higher. According to media reports, 9,500 people are missing in the city of Minamisanriku alone.

Numerous photographic documents paint a truly apocalyptic picture of destruction:

The tsunami was observed along the entire Pacific coast - from Alaska to Chile, but outside Japan it looked much weaker. Hawaii's tourism infrastructure was hit the hardest - about 200 private yachts and boats were wrecked and sunk in Honolulu alone. On the island of Guam, waves tore two US Navy nuclear submarines from their moorings. In Crescent City, California, more than 30 boats and boats were damaged and one person was killed.

According to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, due to the threat of a tsunami on the Kuril Islands, 11 thousand residents were evacuated from coastal areas. Highest height waves - about 3 m - were recorded in the area of ​​the village of Malokurilskoye.

Tsunami in cinema

In the popular genre of disaster films, tsunamis have repeatedly attracted the attention of screenwriters and directors. An example is the feature film “Tsunami” ( South Korea, 2009), frames from which are given below.

The article uses photos from U.S. Navy, Wikipedia, Reuters, Kyodo, Yomiuri, Beawiharta, Ulet Ifansasti and SIPA Press.

Occasionally, tsunami waves occur in the ocean. They are very insidious - in the open ocean they are completely invisible, but as soon as they approach the coastal shelf, where the depth of the ocean rapidly decreases, the wave begins to grow to an incredible height and hits the coast with terrible force, destroying everything around and going deep into the coast, sometimes several kilometers . As a rule, such a wave is not single; it is followed by several weaker ones, but the distance between them reaches tens of kilometers. It is also worth adding the enormous speed of wave movement in the ocean, comparable to the speed of an airplane. Most often, the worst tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes in tectonic faults. The most powerful of them claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and caused colossal destruction of coastal infrastructure.

1. Alaska, 1958

Alaskans still remember the date July 9, 1958. For the Lituya Fjord in the northeast of the Gulf of Alaska, this day was fatal. On this day, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 occurred here, which shook the surrounding mountains and caused the collapse of part of the mountain into the sea, which was the direct cause of the tsunami. The rockfall continued until the evening, a landslide from a height of 910 meters carried down blocks of ice and huge fragments of rocks. It was then calculated that about 300 million cubic meters of rock moved into the bay. As a result, part of the bay was overflowing with water, and a giant landslide moved to the opposite shore, destroying the forests on the Fairweather coast.
This gigantic landslide caused a cyclopean wave over half a kilometer (524 m) high, which became the highest ever recorded by man. This incredibly powerful flow of water washed away Lituya Bay. Vegetation on the mountain slopes was uprooted, crushed and carried away into the boiling abyss. The spit that separated Gilbert Bay and the waters of the bay disappeared. After the end of the “doomsday,” there were rubble everywhere, severe destruction and huge cracks in the ground. As a result of this disaster, approximately 300 thousand Alaskans died.

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. He's visual...

2. Japan, 2011

Just a few years ago, the whole world watched numerous footage of the terrible tsunami hitting the Japanese shores. The Japanese will remember the consequences of this blow for many decades to come. Two major lithospheric plates collided at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, causing powerful earthquake magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, which was about 2 times more powerful than the infamous 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It has already been given the name “Great East Japan Earthquake.”
20 minutes after the earthquake, a huge wave more than 40 meters high hit the densely populated Japanese coast. It was one of the strongest waves that rolled onto Japanese islands. As a result, the tsunami killed over 25 thousand people. But this was only the first powerful blow, after which the second was not immediately visible, the consequences of which would inevitably last for decades. The fact is that the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant located on the shore was also hit by the tsunami. Its system could not withstand the impact of the elements and malfunctioned, as a result of which control over some reactors was lost, up to the melting of their shells. Radioactive substances got into groundwater and spread beyond the station. Now there is an exclusion zone around it for tens of kilometers. As a result of the tsunami, colossal destruction occurred: 400,000 buildings, iron and highways, bridges, seaports, airports. Japan is still rebuilding the destroyed coastal infrastructure.

3. Indian Ocean, 2004

The Indian Ocean prepared a terrible Christmas gift for the residents of many countries on its coast - the catastrophic tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004. The cause of the disaster was a powerful underwater earthquake in the Andaman Islands, near the island of Sumatra. As a result of a fracture in the earth's crust, the bottom there shifted sharply and significantly, which gave rise to an unusual strong wave tsunami. True, in the ocean it was only about 60 cm high. At a speed of about 800 km/h, it began to move in all directions: towards Sumatra, Thailand, the east coast of India and Sri Lanka, and even Madagascar.
Within 8 hours after the shocks, the tsunami hit most of the Indian Ocean coast, and throughout the day its echoes were noted in other parts of the world. The main blow fell on Indonesia, where a tidal wave hit the densely populated coast, destroying everything built by man and penetrating kilometers into the coast.
Tens of thousands of people died almost instantly. Those who found themselves close to the shore and did not find high shelter had no chance of escape, since the water, overflowing with debris and debris carried away by it, did not subside for more than a quarter of an hour, and then inexorably carried its prey into the open ocean.
As a result of this disaster, over 250 thousand people died, and economic losses cannot be calculated. More than 5 million coastal residents were forced to leave their homes, 2 million simply no longer had homes, and many needed help. Many international charities responded to the disaster, sending humanitarian aid by air.

Throughout the history of mankind, powerful earthquakes have repeatedly caused colossal damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population...

4. Krakatoa, Indonesia, 1883

In this fateful year, a catastrophic eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa occurred, as a result of which the volcano itself was destroyed, and a powerful wave was formed in the ocean, striking the entire coast of the Indian Ocean. The eruption began on August 27 with powerful lava flows. When she rushed into the hot crater of the volcano sea ​​water, then a colossal explosion occurred, literally cutting off two-thirds of the island, the debris of which fell into the ocean and caused a series of tsunamis. There is information that 40 thousand people died from this disaster. Those who lived closer than 500 km from the volcano failed to survive. Even in the distant South Africa there were victims of this tsunami.

5. Papua New Guinea, 1998

In July 1998, a disaster occurred in Papua New Guinea. It all started with an earthquake of magnitude 7.1, which provoked a powerful landslide towards the sea. As a result, a 15-meter wave was formed, which hit the shores, immediately killing over 200 thousand inhabitants and leaving many thousands more homeless (the Varupu people lived in the small Varupu Bay, sandwiched between two islands). Then, with an interval of half an hour, two powerful tremors occurred, causing huge waves that destroyed all settlements within 30 kilometers. Near the capital of the state, the city of Rabaupe, the water level in the ocean rose by 6 cm. Although residents of New Guinea often encounter earthquakes and tsunamis, they do not remember a tidal wave of such strength. The huge wave covered more than 100 square kilometers of the island, keeping the water level at 4 meters.

6. Philippines, 1976

Less than half a century ago, in the Pacific basin of Cotabato there was a small island of Mindanao. It was at the southern tip of the picturesque Philippine Islands. The inhabitants of the island enjoyed heavenly living conditions and did not suspect what threat loomed over them. But a powerful 8-magnitude earthquake occurred, which generated a powerful tsunami wave. This wave seemed to cut off the coastline of the island. 5 thousand people who did not find a saving height were washed away by the water flow, 2.5 thousand people could not be found (obviously, they were carried into the ocean), almost 10 thousand were injured to varying degrees, over 90 thousand people were left homeless overnight under open air. For the Philippines, such a disaster was the largest.
Scientists have discovered that after the catastrophic earthquake, the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi changed their coordinates. For the island of Mindanao, this day was probably the most destructive in its entire history.

Under dangerous natural phenomena refers to extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally in that area...

7. Chile, 1960

The Chilean earthquake of 1960 was the most powerful since man began to record the strength of tremors. The great Chilean earthquake occurred on May 22 and had a magnitude of 9.5. It was accompanied by a volcanic eruption and a catastrophic tsunami. In some places the waves reached 25 meters in height. After 15 hours the wave reached distant Hawaiian Islands, where 61 people died from it, and 7 hours later it hit the coast of Japan, killing 142 residents. In total, about 6 thousand people died from this tsunami.
It was after this event that people decided that the entire ocean coast should be notified of the danger of a tsunami, no matter how far it was from the epicenter of the disaster.

8. Italy, 1908

The most powerful earthquake in Europe generated three waves of tsunamis; as a result of the cataclysm, the cities of Reggio Calabria, Messino and Palmi were completely destroyed. 15 minutes was enough for the elements to destroy thousands of buildings, and with them cultural values ​​and unique monuments of the history of Sicily. As for the dead, there is only a rough estimate of their number - from 70 thousand to 100 thousand people, although there are suggestions that there were twice as many victims.

9. Kuril Islands, 1952

A magnitude 7 earthquake in the Kuril Islands caused a tsunami that wiped out Severo-Kurilsk and a number of fishermen’s villages. At that time, residents did not yet know what a tsunami was, and after the shocks they returned to their houses, where they were covered by a 20-meter wave. Those who survived the first wave were covered by the second and third. In total, 2,300 people became victims of the ocean attack. As was customary in the USSR back then, they kept silent about the disaster, but learned about it decades later. The city itself was then moved higher. But this tragedy prompted the creation of a tsunami warning system in the USSR, as well as more active development of oceanology and seismology and scientific research in this area.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time a very significant...

10. Japan, 1707

Of course, there were many tsunamis in Japan during its long history. It is no coincidence that the term “tsunami” itself was invented by the Japanese. Back in 1707, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.4 occurred near Osaka, which caused a wave 25 meters high. But the first wave was followed by several more weaker, although no less destructive, natural disasters. As a result, 30 thousand people died.

A tsunami is one of the most terrible manifestations of nature's wrath. It is generated by an earthquake, after which a huge wave of water rushes towards land and, as a rule, more than one. Thanks to our territorial location, we are not in danger of being washed away into the ocean, because even if underground vibrations occur somewhere, their echoes only reach us. First on the way huge waves islands become and sometimes the carelessness of people, as well as ignorance of banal safety rules, becomes the cause of their death. After all, it happened more than once that people returned to their homes from shelters immediately after the first wave, although there were always two or more of them. We've collected the top 10 largest tsunami waves in the world and combined them into one list.

10. Our list opens with an unpleasant incident in Japan that happened in 2004. Two earthquakes of 6.7 and 7.2 points created large waves, but due to the distance of 120 kilometers, only meter-long effects of vibrations reached the shore. The incident did not cause any deaths, because the coastal residents were almost unharmed, only escaping with fear.

9. Even though the photographs taken by the residents of the Solomon Islands are not photos of the largest tsunami, this did not in the least prevent two-meter waves from completely razing four large settlements to the ground in 2007. According to official data, the disaster claimed the lives of at least 52 people.

8. A magnitude of 8.8 led to significant earth faults in Chile and also caused a tsunami. Three-meter water flows destroyed the city of Compension, and also caused the death of about a hundred people.

7. The underwater terrain near the island of Papua New Guinea became fatal for its inhabitants. Powerful fluctuations with a magnitude of 7.1 did not easily generate waves, underwater they caused a huge landslide, which, when released, caused a large tsunami. Subsequently, it killed more than 2 thousand people.

6. This happened a long time ago, but the residents of the frosty region will remember it forever. In 1957, an earthquake occurred on the islands near Alaska. All recorded readings pointed to a magnitude of 9.1, one of the largest recorded. The waves rose up to 14 meters in height, and only due to the fact that the cold region was sparsely populated, the number of victims was only three hundred people.

5. Five years before the incident in Alaska, almost something similar happened near Kamchatka, but in scale it was still large. The height of the tsunami was 18 meters, which destroyed the city of Severo-Kurilsk, completely turning it into complete ruins. At the moment of its rage, the cataclysm took two thousand lives.

4. One of the few cases when it was possible to find out about the cataclysm in advance and save everyone who might have been hurt. Where was the largest tsunami in the world, which never managed to reach its goal - on the islands of Izu and Miyake. A magnitude of only 6.8 generated waves of about 40 meters on average, but fortunately the authorities managed to quickly evacuate local residents.

3. Thanks to the underground vibrations of 1958, Lituya Bay was visually completely changed. They caused the collapse of a huge part of the mountain slope, which went under water, and this in turn caused the emergence of a water giant measuring 52 meters in height, which met the land at a speed of 150 km/h, radically changing it.

2. Another incident in Alaska happened back in 1964, however, this time in Prince William Sound. Powerful vibrations caused a record 67-meter wave, which killed about one and a half hundred civilians.

1. What is the biggest tsunami in the world? What happened off the coast of Southeast Asia back in 2004. Its power and mercilessness did not easily terrify, the incredible masses of water took the lives of at least 235 thousand people. There were victims in Somalia, Sri Lanka, India, and even Thailand.

Why do Nazaré have the biggest waves in the world? July 15th, 2017

There is a place in the world from which photo and video reports of giant waves are often taken. For the last few years, records in Big Wave surfing for the largest wave taken (both by hand and with the help of a jet) have been set on the same wave, Nazaré. The first such record was set by Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara in 2011 - the wave height was 24 meters. Then, in 2013, he broke his record by riding a wave 30 meters high.

Why is this place the biggest waves in the world?

Let's first remember the mechanism of wave formation:

So, it all begins far, far away in the ocean, where strong winds blow and storms rage. As we know from the school geography course, the wind blows from the area with high blood pressure to the area of ​​decline. In the ocean, these areas are separated by many kilometers, so the wind blows over very large area ocean, transferring part of its energy to water due to the force of friction. Where this happens, the ocean is more like a bubbling soup - have you ever seen a storm at sea? It’s about the same there, only on a larger scale. There are small and large waves, all mixed up, superimposed on each other. However, the energy of water also does not stand still, but moves in a certain direction.

Due to the fact that the ocean is very, very large, and the waves different sizes moving at different speeds, during the time until all this seething mess reaches the shore, it is “sifted”, some small waves combine with others into large ones, others, on the contrary, are mutually destroyed. As a result, what is called Groung Swell comes to the shore - smooth ridges of waves, divided into sets of three to nine with large intervals of calm between them.

However, not every swell is destined to become a surfable wave. Although, it would be more correct to say - not everywhere. In order for a wave to be caught, it must crash in a certain way. The formation of a surfing wave depends on the structure of the bottom in the coastal zone. The ocean is very deep, so the mass of water moves evenly, but as it approaches the shore, the depth begins to decrease, and the water, which moves closer to the bottom, for lack of any other way out, begins to rise to the surface, thereby raising waves. In the place where the depth, or rather shallowness, reaches critical value, the rising wave can no longer become larger and collapses. The place where this happens is called the lineup, and that’s where the surfers sit, waiting for the right wave.

The shape of the wave directly depends on the shape of the bottom: the sharper the shallows become, the sharper the wave. Typically, the sharpest and even trumpeting waves are born where the height difference is almost instantaneous, for example, at the bottom of a huge rock or the beginning of a reef plateau.

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Where the drop is gradual and the bottom is sandy, the waves are flatter and slower. These are the waves that are best suited for learning to surf, which is why all surf schools conduct their first lessons for beginners on sandy beaches.

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Of course, there are also other factors that affect the waves, for example, the same wind: it can improve or worsen the quality of waves depending on the direction. In addition, there are so-called wind swells, these are waves that do not have time to be “sifted” by distance, since the storm is raging not so far from the coast.

So, now about the highest waves. Thanks to the winds, enormous energy is accumulated, which then moves towards the coast. As it approaches the shore, the oceanic swell transforms into waves, but unlike other places on our planet, a surprise awaits it off the coast of Portugal.

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The thing is that it is in the area of ​​​​the city of Nazaré that the seabed is a huge canyon 5000 meters deep and 230 kilometers long. This means that the oceanic swell does not undergo changes, but reaches, as it is, all the way to the continent, falling on the coastal rocks with all its might. The height of a wave is usually measured as the distance from the crest to the base (where, incidentally, something like a trough is often sucked in, increasing the height compared to what it would be if measured by mean sea level at a given tide height).

Photo 5.

However, unlike waves such as Mavericks or Teahupoo, on Nazar the crest, even if it collapses, never hangs over the base; moreover, it is separated from the bottom point by about 40 meters along the horizontal axis. Due to spatial distortion of perspective, when looking from the front we see a body of water 30 meters high, technically it is even larger, but this is not the height of the wave. That is, strictly speaking, Nazaré is not a wave, but a water mountain, a pure oceanic swell, powerful and unpredictable.

Photo 6.

However, the fact that Nazaré is not exactly a wave does not make this spot any less scary or dangerous. Garrett McNamara says Nazaré is incredibly difficult to navigate. Usually three people help him in the water: one pulls him out on a jet to the line-up, accelerates him into the wave and does not swim far to make sure that everything is okay with the surfer. He is supported by a second jet, as well as a third one a little further away, whose driver is watching all three. Also, Garrett’s wife stands on the rock near the lighthouse and tells him on the radio what waves are coming and which ones can be taken. On the day he set his second record, not everything went smoothly. The first driver was knocked off the jet by a wave, so the second had to pull Garrett out of the foam, and the third hurried to help the first. Everything was done clearly and quickly, so no one was hurt.

Photo 7.

Garrett himself says the following: “of course, all these safety nets and technical devices in surfing are big waves– this is a kind of cheating. And in principle, you can do without them, but in this case the chances of dying are much higher. As for me personally, since I had a wife and children, I feel more responsibility for them and fear for my life, so I go to all technical lengths to make it as likely as possible to return home alive.”

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Tsunami is one of the most terrifying natural phenomena. It is a wave formed as a result of “shaking” of the entire thickness of water in the ocean. Tsunamis are most often caused by underwater earthquakes.

Approaching the shore, the tsunami grows into a huge shaft tens of meters high and hits the shore with millions of tons of water. The largest tsunami in the world caused colossal destruction and led to the death of millions of people.

Krakatoa, 1883

This tsunami was not caused by an earthquake or landslide. The explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia generated a powerful wave that swept along the entire coast of the Indian Ocean.

Residents of fishing villages within a radius of about 500 km from the volcano had virtually no chance of survival. Victims were observed even in South Africa, on the opposite shore of the ocean. In total, 36.5 thousand people are considered dead from the tsunami itself.

Kuril Islands, 1952

The tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 7 earthquake, destroyed the city of Severo-Kurilsk and several fishing villages. Then the residents had no idea about the tsunami and after the earthquake stopped they returned to their homes, becoming victims of a 20-meter water shaft. Many were caught up in the second and third waves because they did not know that a tsunami is a series of waves. About 2,300 people died. Authorities Soviet Union decided not to report the tragedy in the media, so the disaster became known only decades later.

The city of Severo-Kurilsk was subsequently moved to a higher place. And the tragedy became the reason for the organization in the USSR of a tsunami warning system and more active scientific research in seismology and oceanology.

Lituya Bay, 1958

An earthquake with a magnitude of more than 8 provoked a huge landslide with a volume of more than 300 million cubic meters, consisting of stones and ice from two glaciers. To these were added the waters of the lake, the shore of which collapsed into the bay.

As a result, a gigantic wave was formed, reaching a height of 524 m! It swept across the bay, licking the vegetation and soil on the slopes of the bay like a tongue, completely destroying the spit that separated it from Gilbert Bay. This is the highest tsunami wave in history. The banks of Lituya were not inhabited, so only 5 fishermen became victims.

Chile, 1960

On May 22, the consequences of the Great Chilean Earthquake with a magnitude of 9.5 were a volcanic eruption and a tsunami 25 m high. Almost 6 thousand people died.

But the rogue wave did not calm down there. At the speed of a jet plane she crossed Pacific Ocean, killing 61 people in Hawaii, and reached the shores of Japan. Another 142 people became victims of the tsunami, which occurred at a distance of more than 10 thousand km. After this, it was decided to warn about the danger of a tsunami even in the most remote areas of the coast that may be in the path of a deadly wave.

Philippines, 1976

The powerful earthquake caused a wave, the height of which seems to be unimpressive - 4.5 m. Unfortunately, the tsunami hit the low-lying coast for more than 400 miles. But the residents were not prepared for such a threat. The result is more than 5 thousand dead and about 2.5 thousand missing without a trace. Almost 100 thousand residents of the Philippines were left homeless, and many villages along the coastline were simply completely washed away along with their inhabitants.

Papua New Guinea, 1998

The consequence of the earthquake on July 17 was a gigantic underwater landslide, which caused a 15-meter wave. And so the poor country suffered several natural disasters, more than 2,500 people died or went missing. And more than 10 thousand residents lost their homes and livelihoods. The tragedy became the impetus for studying the role of underwater landslides in causing tsunamis.

Indian Ocean, 2004

December 26, 2004 is forever inscribed in blood in the history of Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries on the Indian Ocean coast. On this day, the tsunami claimed the lives of about 280 thousand people, and according to unofficial data - up to 655 thousand.

The underwater earthquake caused waves 30 m high that hit coastal areas within 15 minutes. The large number of deaths is due to several reasons. This high degree coastal population, lowland areas, large number tourists on the beaches. But the main reason is the lack of an established tsunami warning system and poor awareness of people about safety measures.

Japan, 2011

The height of the wave resulting from the magnitude 9 earthquake reached 40 m. The whole world watched in horror the footage of the tsunami destroying coastal buildings, ships, cars...