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Essay on Tsunami for Students and Children

500+ words essay on tsunami.

Tsunami is a phenomenon where a series of strong waves that are responsible for the surge in water sometimes reach the heights in many meters. This is a natural disaster that is caused due to the volcano eruption in the ocean beds. Also, a phenomenon like landslides and earthquakes contributes to reasons for a tsunami. Like other natural disasters, the impact of the tsunami is also huge. It has been seen throughout history how disastrous the tsunami is. The essay on tsunami talks about various factors that contribute to the tsunami and the damage it causes to mankind. 

Essay on Tsunami

The disaster that is caused due to waves generated in the ocean because of the earthquake and whose main point is under the water is known as ‘Tsunami’. Also, the term tsunami is associated with tidal waves. Thus, a tsunami is also called as the series of ocean waves that have a very long wavelength. Because of the tsunami, there are strong waves of water is formed and this moves landwards. So, this causes inland movement of water which is very high and lasts for a long time. Thus, the impact of these waves is also very high. 

Greeks were the first people on Earth to claim the effects of the tsunami. They claim that tsunami is just like land earthquakes. Also, the only difference between tsunami and earthquake is that tsunami is caused in oceans. Thus, the scale and ferocity of the tsunami are almost impossible to control. 

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The History of Tsunami

The highest ever recorded tsunami was on 9th July 1958 in the record books. It took place in a bay which was located in the ligula bay along the coasts of Alaska. After the quake, a massive mass of rock fell into the bay waters from the cliff nearby. Thus, this created an impact and produced a wave that reached a height of 524 meters. Also, this is regarded as one of the highest recorded tsunami waves ever. 

The destructive waves responsible for the occurrence of tsunami is also produced in waters of bays or lakes. As this water approached the coast, it grows larger. However, the size of this wave is very low in deep-sea areas. Tsunami waves that are generated in the lakes or bays do not travel for a long distance. Thus, they are not as destructive as the ones produced in the ocean waters. There are various directions in which tsunami can travel from the main point. 

One similar devastating tsunami was experienced in India in 2004. However, the origin of this tsunami was located near Indonesia. Because of the tsunami, it was expected that a total of 2 lakh people lost their lives. The waves traveled extensively thousands of kilometers in countries like Thailand, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. 

Tsunamis occur mainly in the Pacific Ocean. There are very chances that they take place in the area where there are larger bodies. Coastlines and open bays next to very deep waters may help tsunami further into a step-like wave. 

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These destructive surges of water are caused by underwater earthquakes.

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 meters), onto land. These walls of water can cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore.

What Causes a Tsunami?

These awe-inspiring waves are typically caused by large, undersea earthquakes at tectonic plate boundaries . When the ocean floor at a plate boundary rises or falls suddenly, it displaces the water above it and launches the rolling waves that will become a tsunami.

Most tsunamis–about 80 percent–happen within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” a geologically active area where tectonic shifts make volcanoes and earthquakes common.

Tsunamis may also be caused by underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions. They may even be launched, as they frequently were in Earth’s ancient past, by the impact of a large meteorite plunging into an ocean.

Tsunamis race across the sea at up to 500 miles (805 kilometers) an hour—about as fast as a jet airplane. At that pace, they can cross the entire expanse of the Pacific Ocean in less than a day. And their long wavelengths mean they lose very little energy along the way.

More than 1,500 people died in Rikuzentakata, one of several towns eradicated by a tsunami that hit Japan.

In deep ocean, tsunami waves may appear only a foot or so high. But as they approach shoreline and enter shallower water they slow down and begin to grow in energy and height. The tops of the waves move faster than their bottoms do, which causes them to rise precipitously.

What Happens When It Hits Land

A tsunami’s trough, the low point beneath the wave’s crest, often reaches shore first. When it does, it produces a vacuum effect that sucks coastal water seaward and exposes harbor and sea floors. This retreating of sea water is an important warning sign of a tsunami, because the wave’s crest and its enormous volume of water typically hit shore five minutes or so later. Recognizing this phenomenon can save lives .

A tsunami is usually composed of a series of waves, called a wave train, so its destructive force may be compounded as successive waves reach shore. People experiencing a tsunami should remember that the danger may not have passed with the first wave and should await official word that it is safe to return to vulnerable locations.

Some tsunamis do not appear on shore as massive breaking waves but instead resemble a quickly surging tide that inundates coastal areas.

The best defense against any tsunami is early warning that allows people to seek higher ground. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System, a coalition of 26 nations headquartered in Hawaii, maintains a web of seismic equipment and water level gauges to identify tsunamis at sea. Similar systems are proposed to protect coastal areas worldwide.

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What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them? Research Paper

Introduction, plate tectonics, plate boundaries, how earthquake will generate tsunami.

Tsunamis are series of the ocean waves with very long wavelengths, hundreds of kilometers away, being brought about by various processes like sub marines, landslides, glacier calving, volcanic eruptions, meteorite impacts but greatly by earthquakes. It is formed in the ocean and big lakes.

Tsunami originated from the Japanese words ‘tsu’ meaning ‘harbor’ and ‘nami’ meaning ‘wave’ to make a ‘harbor wave’. Tsunamis have in the past and present brought catastrophic devastation to property and human death like in North East of Japan, on March 11, 2011. We shall dwell on the Shifts in the Tectonic plates as the reasoning behind the Tsunamis, but we have to understand the concept involved in the movement of the plate tectonics then how the earthquake will be generated to result into tsunami.

These are movements of the lithospheric plates. Tectonics is movement and deformation of the crust, which integrate the ancient theory of continental drift. Plates are the “lithospheric plates which are about 100 kilometers or more” (Earth Quake Museum, 2011, p. 1). Plate tectonics mostly produces earthquake.

It should be noted that, “the earth crust consist of plates sections that float on the molten rock of the mantle” (Earth Quake Museum, 2011, p. 1). The movement of the plates is due to the conventional current. Conventional current is brought about by relationship between the densities of the fluid to its temperature. We can say that convectional current is the flow that transfers heat within a fluid by setting in motion by the heating and cooling of the fluid which changes in its density and continues as long as it heats.

The magma containing material at very high temperatures “rises and spreads on the surfaces creating a new crust which spreads out forming a new plate, until it meets other plates” (Earth Quake Museum, 2011, p. 1). After such a mechanism, “then one of the plates will pushed down into the inferior of the earth and reabsorbed in the mantle; plates can also compress to push up the mountains when they collide or move sideways along the transform faults” (Earth Quake Museum, 2011, p. 1).

The process of plates’ movements is a bit detailed as explained by the Geography site below:

One of the most famous examples of plates sliding past each other is the San Andreas Fault in California. Here the two plates, the Pacific plate and the North American plate both move in a roughly in the northwesterly direction, but one is moving faster than the other. The San Francisco area is prone to many small earthquakes every year as the two plates grind against each other. (Geography site, 2006, p. 1)

The above diagram shows, “Divergent Boundaries occur at Oceanic Ridges, where new Oceanic lithosphere is formed and moves away from the ridge in opposite directions” (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1).

Shown above: “convergent Boundaries occur where oceanic lithosphere is pushed back into the mantle, marked by oceanic trenches and subduction zones” (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1).

Two types are possible –

“When two plates of oceanic lithosphere converge oceanic lithosphere is subducted beneath oceanic lithosphere; when ocean lithosphere runs into a plate with continental lithosphere, the oceanic lithosphere is subducted beneath the continental lithosphere” (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1).

“Transform Boundaries occur where two plates slide past one another horizontally; the San Andreas Fault, in California is a transform fault” (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1).

“Continental rifting may create a new divergent margin and evolve into an oceanic ridge, such as is occurring in East Africa and between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate” (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1).

It has been shown that the plates play very significant role in making the earth crust unstable:

Continental lithosphere collide to join two plates together, such as has occurred recently where the Indian Plate has collided with the Eurasian Plate to form the Himalaya Mountains. Plate tectonics explains why earthquakes occur where they do, why volcanoes occur where they do, how mountain ranges form, as well as many other aspects of the Earth. It is such an important theory in understanding how the Earth works. (The Earth and Beyond, 2011, p. 1)

After fault has been created the earthquake will occur on it due to the massive violent movement as the two plates compress one another or override one another causing heavy pressure on the underlying rock. This causes vibrations or shockwaves to go through ground. As the solid rock plate moves up beneath the sea, “there is a sudden movement within the crust or mantle and concentric shock waves moves out of that point” (Geography site, 2006, p. 1).

The point of origin is referred as the focus, where in a radius of around 250 miles the effect is greatly felt, and the point directly above the surface is called the epicenter (Geography site, 2006).

A Tsunami is formed when “the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water” (Geography site, 2006, p. 1). Earth’s crust deforms from at points below the ocean consequently disturbing the overlying mass of water. The process continues as thus:

The water above is displaced from its equilibrium position. The waves will be as result of the displacement of the water mass, which act under influence of gravity, to regain its equilibrium position. The potential energy that results from the uplifting or pushing of the water above mean level is then transferred to horizontal propagation of tsunami wave which possess the kinetic energy. (Tsunami, 2011, p. 1)

Tsunamis will results when a large sea floor elevate. Within several minute of earthquake, the initial, panel 1, is split into a tsunami that travels out of the deep ocean and another travelling to the nearby coast (Tsunami, 2011).

The tsunami will be greatly affected as it travels through the ocean where the rate at which the wave loses its energy is related to its wavelength. At deep waters the wave will travel at a very high velocity and as it approached the shoe or as the depth decreases the speed of the wave decreases; however the energy of the wave remains constant.

From the above study, tsunamis are produced or generated by the plate tectonic beside where the movement of the tectonics due to convectional current due to the heat coming from the earth center. This produces the movement of the plate where one plate moves toward the other and collide resulting in the faults being formed. This movement causes a ground shaking movement resulting into elastic waves travelling through the solid earth where one plate is emerged above the other and this causes an upward movement.

The upward movement causes the water above to be displaced, pushing a large volume of water upwards and the potential energy involved is transformed to horizontal kinetic energy which is massive causing formation of a wave of water which is the tsunami. For the last tsunamis they have occurred through this method.

Geography site. (2006). What causes an earthquake? Web.

The Earth and beyond. (2011). The earth and beyond, plate tectonics . Web.

The Earthquake Museum. (2011). What causes earthquakes? Web.

Tsunami. (2011). Tsunamis . Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, March 23). What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them? https://ivypanda.com/essays/tsunami/

"What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them?" IvyPanda , 23 Mar. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/tsunami/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them'. 23 March.

IvyPanda . 2022. "What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them?" March 23, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tsunami/.

1. IvyPanda . "What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them?" March 23, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tsunami/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "What Is a Tsunami and What Causes Them?" March 23, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/tsunami/.

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Essay on Tsunami

Students are often asked to write an essay on Tsunami in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Tsunami

What is a tsunami.

A tsunami is a series of powerful waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of water. This usually happens due to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or underwater landslides.

How Does a Tsunami Form?

When the sea floor abruptly deforms, it displaces the overlying water, triggering a tsunami. The waves travel across the ocean at high speeds.

Effects of a Tsunami

Tsunamis can cause mass destruction when they hit land. They can flood cities, destroy buildings, and take lives. It’s important to have early warning systems to minimize damage.

Understanding tsunamis helps us prepare and mitigate their harmful effects.

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250 Words Essay on Tsunami

Introduction.

Tsunamis, deriving from the Japanese words ‘tsu’ meaning harbor and ‘nami’ meaning wave, are a series of powerful water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water. They are known for their destructive power and unpredictability, posing a significant threat to coastal communities.

Causes of Tsunamis

Tsunamis are typically triggered by seismic activities beneath the ocean floor. These include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides. The energy released during these events displaces the overlying water column, generating waves that can travel across oceans at high speeds.

Characteristics and Impact

Unlike regular waves, tsunami waves involve the movement of the entire water column from the sea surface to the seabed. This attribute contributes to their long wavelengths and high energy, enabling them to travel vast distances. Upon reaching shallow waters, their speed decreases, causing the wave height to increase dramatically, often resulting in widespread destruction when they hit land.

Prevention and Mitigation

While tsunamis cannot be prevented, their impact can be mitigated through early warning systems, coastal zone management, and community preparedness. Technological advancements have made it possible to detect seismic activities and issue timely alerts, thereby saving lives.

Tsunamis, while a fascinating natural phenomenon, are a stark reminder of nature’s power. Understanding their causes and characteristics is crucial in developing effective mitigation strategies, thereby reducing their devastating impacts on human lives and the environment.

500 Words Essay on Tsunami

Tsunamis, often referred to as seismic sea waves, are a series of ocean waves caused by any large-scale disturbance of the sea surface. These disturbances can include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides or even meteorite impacts in the ocean. Tsunamis are not regular sea waves but energy waves, often caused by seismic activities beneath the ocean floor. Their impact on human lives and the environment can be devastating, emphasizing the importance of understanding and predicting these natural disasters.

The Mechanics of a Tsunami

Tsunamis are initiated by a sudden displacement of the sea floor due to geological activities like earthquakes. This displacement results in a vertical shift of the overlying water column, creating a series of waves that radiate outwards from the point of origin. The speed of a tsunami is determined by the depth of water, with deeper waters facilitating faster wave speeds.

In the open ocean, these waves may be just a few centimeters high, but their wavelength, or the distance between successive crests, can span hundreds of kilometers. As these waves approach coastal areas, the shallowing sea floor compresses the wave energy, causing the wave to increase dramatically in height.

Impact and Consequences

The destructive power of a tsunami comes from the massive amount of water that it can move and the consequent flooding. When a tsunami reaches the shore, it can cause immense damage to structures, erode beaches and embankments, destroy vegetation, and severely impact both terrestrial and marine life.

The human toll can be equally devastating. Tsunamis can lead to loss of life, displacement of people, and economic damage. The aftermath of a tsunami often includes public health crises, with the spread of waterborne diseases and psychological trauma among survivors.

Unfortunately, tsunamis cannot be prevented as they are triggered by natural geological processes. However, their impact can be mitigated through early warning systems, community preparedness, and intelligent coastal management.

Tsunami early warning systems, comprising seismographs and sea level monitoring stations, can provide critical minutes to hours of warning. This allows people in the path of a tsunami to seek higher ground. Community preparedness involves education about tsunami risks, evacuation routes, and drills. Intelligent coastal management can include the construction of seawalls, planting of mangroves to absorb wave energy, and zoning laws to prevent construction in high-risk areas.

Tsunamis, while a fascinating demonstration of the power of nature, are a sobering reminder of our vulnerability to natural disasters. As our understanding of these phenomena grows, so too does our ability to protect ourselves and our communities. The implementation of early warning systems, public education, and intelligent coastal management are key components in reducing the devastating impact of these ocean giants. Through continued research and community resilience, we can mitigate the effects of tsunamis and safeguard our future against these powerful sea waves.

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• CBSE Notes For Class 8
• Class 8 English Notes and Summary
• The Tsunami Summary

The Tsunami Summary & Notes - CBSE Class 8 English Honeydew

Summary of the tsunami.

Chapter 2 of the Class 8 English Main Coursebook – Honeydew, consists of prose – The Tsunami, which comprises three parts about the destruction and havoc caused by a natural calamity. It caused massive damage and loss of life and property and left thousands of people homeless. Read the prose summary of CBSE Class 8 English Prose Notes – The Tsunami in CBSE English Notes Class 8 format here. We hope this brief summary will help students to get an in-depth understanding of the chapter and prepare for their English exam confidently.

To prepare for the writing section of the Class 8 English exam, students must practice essays  on various topics. By doing so, they can easily score marks in essay writing.

CBSE Class 8 English The Tsunami Summary

Here we bring you the summary of the second unit, ‘The Tsunami’ of the Class 8 English Main Coursebook – Honeydew. This unit is divided into three parts. Each part deals with how a few people inspired others to help each other in difficult times when the tsunami hit different parts of the world. We have explained each of the parts in the simple language below:

The Tsunami: Part 1 Summary

Part 1 consists of four stories of people who faced the deadly tsunami on December 26, 2004. It discusses how the lives of different people who hailed from the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago were impacted by the effect of the dreadful tsunami.

In the first story, Ignesious is a manager of a cooperative society in Katchall. His wife woke him up at 6 a.m. when she could sense a few tremors. However, it was not just a simple earthquake, it was the sea rising. A tsunami had struck that place. The waves were so huge that they swept away his family, including his wife, children, father-in-law and brother-in-law.

In the second story of Part 1, a policeman named Sanjeev saved his family members comprising his wife and his baby daughter, from the dangerous waves. However, he drowned while trying to rescue the guest house cook, John’s wife, due to huge waves that washed both of them away.

The third incident of Part 1 is about a thirteen-year-old girl, Meghna, who was swept away by the waves along with her parents and many other people. She was floating in the sea, holding a wooden plank and was brought to shore by a wave. Although she was saved, she was completely dazed as she walked on the seashore.

The fourth story of Part 1 is about Almas Javed, a ten-year-old girl. Her father had noticed that the seawater was receding after the tremors. He realised this was a sign of a bigger danger, so he warned everyone to take shelter in a safer place. While he was helping others, a huge wave came and washed away Almas’s father, along with her grandfather. Slowly her entire family has swept away, while Almas climbed on a floating wooden log and fainted. When she woke up, she found herself in a hospital in Kamorta. She was so traumatised that she never talked about the incident with anyone.

The Tsunami: Part 2 Summary

Part 2 is the story of a young British schoolgirl named Tilly Smith, who visited Phuket Beach in Thailand with her family to celebrate Christmas. On 26th December 2004, she and her entire family were on the beach. She and her mother noticed that the sea waves were slowly rising. They had started to foam and were making whirlpools. Although her mother was not much worried about the signs, Tilly could sense something was not right.

Tilly remembered that her geography teacher had once mentioned that tsunamis could be caused by earthquakes, violent tremors, volcanoes and landslides. She raised an alarm that the deadly waves were the signs of a tsunami. She informed her family and many people on the beach so that they could return to the hotel as soon as possible. Luckily, the hotel that Tilly’s family was residing in could withstand the tsunami’s impact, and they were all saved from the disaster.

The Tsunami: Part 3 Summary

Part 3 of the unit mentions the sixth sense of animals in identifying disastrous natural calamities. Many animals, both domestic and wild, could sense the coming of the tsunami during December 2004, and they rushed into their shelters and were hesitant to come out of their homes. Around 1,50,000 people lost their lives in a dozen countries, while in comparison, only a few animals died in the disaster.

The Yala National Park, located in Sri Lanka, is home to a huge variety of animals and birds. Almost 60 visitors died, while only two animals’ carcasses were found. Also, a few park people had observed that three elephants were running away from the Patanangala beach an hour before the tsunami struck it. In another incident, a Sri Lankan gentleman who lived near the Galle coast had two dogs who refused to go for a walk on the beach. This was indeed a warning signal for them and their master, who were saved from the massive impact of the tsunami.

Conclusion of The Tsunami

The chapter – The Tsunami teaches a lesson to students that a tsunami is a natural disaster that causes massive destruction and immense loss to life and property. In each story, we learnt about hard life lessons and reassuring details of determination, courage, resilience and survival. One should exhibit acts of courage, compassion and responsibility in the tough struggle of endurance and restoration. Presenting the CBSE Class 8 English Honeydew Prose Summary of The Tsunami that must have helped 8th Standard students to have a thorough understanding of the chapter.

Besides, BYJU’S offers a huge range of resources such as CBSE Notes and CBSE study materials . They can also download BYJU’S: The Learning App and explore CBSE sample papers and question papers of prior years.

Frequently Asked Questions on CBSE Class 8 English The tsunami

How is tsunami caused.

When a large and sudden displacement occurs in the ocean, usually the result of an earthquake below or near the ocean floor, tsunami/long waves are formed.

Which was the most recent tsunami experienced in India?

The Tsunami formed in Sumatra, Indonesia, on the 26th of December 2004 and hit the Southwest coast of India. Nagapattinam, Chennai, Cuddalore, Velankanni and Poompuhar experienced a devastating effect and many lives were lost.

What is the meaning of Restoration?

Restoration is the act of repairing or renewing something.

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