Test Glossary Import

Bulletin BoardTBB is an ITIC-sponsored e-mail list serve that provides an open, objective scientific forum for the posting and discussion of news and information relating to tsunamis and tsunami research. The ITIC provides the service to tsunami researchers and other technical professionals for the purpose of facilitating the widespread dissemination of information on tsunami events, current research investigations, and announcements for upcoming meetings, publications, and other tsunami- related materials. All members of the TBB are welcome to contribute. Messages are immediately broadcast without modification. The TBB has been very useful for helping to rapidly organize post-tsunami surveys, for distributing their results, and for planning tsunami workshops and symposia. Members of the TBB automatically receive the tsunami bulletins issued by the US NOAA PTWC and NTWC.

A tsunami originating from a far away source, generally more than 1,000 km or more than 3 hours tsunami travel time from its source.

Less frequent, but more hazardous than regional tsunamis, are ocean-wide or distant tsunamis. Usually starting as a local tsunami that causes extensive destruction near the source, these waves continue to travel across an entire ocean basin with sufficient energy to cause additional casualties and destruction on shores more than a 1,000 kilometres from the source. In the last 300 years, there have been at least 43 destructive oceanwide tsunamis and 18 have caused fatalities.

The most destructive Pacific-wide tsunami of recent history was generated by a massive earthquake off the coast of Chile on 22 May 1960. All Chilean coastal towns between the 36th and 44th parallels were either destroyed or heavily damaged by the action of the tsunami and the earthquake. The combined tsunami and earthquake toll included 2,000 killed, 3,000 injured, two million homeless, and $550 million damage. Off the coast of Corral, Chile, the waves were estimated to be 20 metres (67 feet) high. The tsunami caused 61 deaths in Hawaii, 20 in the Philippines, and 139 in Japan. Estimated damages were $50 million in Japan, $24 million in Hawaii and several millions of dollars along the west coast of the United States and Canada. Distant wave heights varied from slight oscillations in some areas to 12 metres (40 feet) at Pitcairn Island, 11 metres (37 feet) at Hilo, Hawaii, and 6 metres (20 feet) at some places in Japan.

The worst tsunami catastrophe in history occurred in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, when a M9.3 earthquake off of the northwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, produced an ocean-wide tsunami that hit Thailand and Malaysia to the east, and Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, and Africa to the west as it traversed across the Indian Ocean. Nearly 228,000 people lost their lives and more than a million people were displaced, losing their homes, property, and their livelihoods. The magnitude of death and destructiveness caused immediate response by the world’s leaders and led to the development of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in 2005. The event also raised awareness of tsunami hazards globally, and new systems were established in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

The tsunami of 26 December 2004 destroyed the nearby city of Bandas Aceh, Indonesia, leaving only a few structures standing. Photo courtesy of Yuichi Nishimura, Hokkaido University.

taken to ensure public safety by responsible agencies after notification by the Tsunami Warning Focal Point (TWFP), typically the national Tsunami Warning Centre. It includes Standard Operating Procedures and Protocols for emergency response and action, organizations and individuals involved and their roles and responsibilities, contact information, timeline and urgency assigned to action, and means by which both ordinary citizens and special needs populations (physically or mentally handicapped, elderly, transient, and marine populations) will be alerted. For tsunami response, emphasis is placed on the rapidness, efficiency, conciseness, and clarity of the actions and instructions to the public. A Tsunami Emergency Response Plan should also include post- tsunami actions and responsibilities for search and rescue, relief, rehabilitation, and recovery.

PTWC issued a tsunami warning in 1986 for an Aleutian Islands earthquake, prompting Hawaii emergency officials to evacuate all low-lying coasts. Waimea Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. Photo courtesy of Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Information a resource for the development, publication, and distribution of tsunami education and preparedness materials and information on tsunami occurrences, and may support risk assessment and mitigation activities. A Tsunami Information Centre has been established in each of the regional tsunami warning systems within the ICG framework.

• – International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC)
• – Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC)
• seas Tsunami Information Centre (NEAMTIC)

1. The wave motion of the tides.
2. Often incorrectly used to describe a tsunami, storm surge, or other unusually high and therefore destructive water levels along a shore that are unrelated to the tides.

The rhythmic, alternate rise and fall of the surface (or water level) of the ocean, and of bodies of water connected with the ocean such as estuaries and gulfs, occurring twice a day over most of the Earth and resulting from the gravitational attraction of the moon (and, in lesser degrees, of the sun) acting unequally on different parts of the rotating Earth.

One-half of the difference in height between consecutive high water and low water; hence, half of the tidal range.

A device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a datum.

A place where tide observations are obtained.

Tsunamis will damage all coastal facilities. This sea level gauge at Talcahuano was being used by the Chilean Navy to monitor the 27 February 2010 Chile tsunami. During the 11 March 2011 Japan tsunami, seven stations were destroyed or damaged and six stations stopped transmitting data leaving JMA unable to fully monitor the tsunami’s severity. Photo courtesy of R. Núñez Gundlach.

mitigation system programme. The person may be the Tsunami Warning Focal Point from the national disaster management organization, from a technical or scientific institution, or from another agency with tsunami warning and mitigation responsibilities.