Tsunami Aftermath

On December 26, 2004 a massive tsunami swept through Thailand killing thousands of people, and changing the lives of thousands more. Although the Tsunami happened months ago, we are still feeling the affects of it today.

The massive destruction that occurred because of the tsunami has a huge impact today. Thousands of villagers in Thailand who live on a very low income to begin with lost all they had in the tsunami, as the water took it away or destroyed it altogether. These are villagers who are having an incredibly hard time now trying to scrape by and replace what it is the tsunami took from them.

Agriculturally Thailand was hit very bad with the tsunami as well. Where water was reported to have traveled 7-8 miles inland farms are suffering loss of crops and livestock, as the salt that remains on their fields isn't producing the crops that are needed to support themselves and their families.

Because of the change in the environment around Thailand, rivers are emptying more quickly into the ocean, which is going to become a problem for farmers as far as irrigating their fields, and providing water for their livestock to drink.

Another result that I think is often overlooked, is the amount of pollutants that were deposited into the waves went over the land. This can include substances like gasoline and oil, and other dangerous chemicals.

This is only a short look at some of the effects that the great tsunami is having in Thailand and in other parts around the world. I would urge you to become more informed on the situation and learn what it is that you can do to get involved, and to assist in the recovery of these nations.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the following caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Tsunami Area [http://www.tsunami-area.com]. Which is a great web directory and information center on the tsunami in Thailand and around the world.

The Asian Tsunami Opened Waves of Love

When something terrible as the biggest tsunami happens to so many people so suddenly, one of two reactions occurs: Either you feel the world is a terrible place where the innocent suffer and disaster awaits around the corner--or you realize that this entire world show is designed to teach us love.

While we can't even begin to fathom the meaning of the recent tsunami, it was a massive wakeup call for the entire planet.

The Tsunami waves also created waves within us to open up our hearts and respond as best we knew. We expressed it as best we could through prayers, through our pocketbook, and through sharing our deep concern. What it did for us was teach us love.

We realized that we're all in this experience called life together and that when anyone suffers everyone feels the echo. We share a common humanity.

Other disasters have happened very recently--the constant slaughter of human beings for idealism, religion, and nationalism--but we lost touch with our compassion, our minds blinded by judgment, fear, and prejudice.

But with the asian tsunami, we had to face our humanity and its fickle nature without any buffers. The tsunami images shook our habitual self-absorption and our innate narcissism.

Still judgment happened. People decided to blame God or nature. People decided that it happened elsewhere and that little could be done about it. Others became absorbed in tsunami facts.

Nevertheless, hearts opened, money, rescue attempts, and prayers suddenly escalated. And for a brief moment, we began to feel like a single humanity; across the globe, we became one race, one country, and one people.

Our illusory boundaries melted as we gazed at video clips of tsunamis.

All of us can relate in one way to disaster, and when we saw it happen on such a large scale, it opened up our hearts.

When we learned to love, we learned to give, and when we learned to do what God would do if he were a human being, we learned who and what we are.

In the end, it's all about love.

In loving, we become truly ourselves. We discover a power for good we never knew existed. And we discover that we are one consciousness existing in many bodies.

Tsunami aid is also aid to our closed hearts.

Resource Box

Saleem Rana got his masters in psychotherapy from California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, Ca., 15 years ago and now resides in Denver, Colorado. His articles on the internet have inspired over ten thousand people from around the world. Discover how to create a remarkable life

Copyright 2005 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It's a shareware article.

How Safe Would a Boat Be During a Tsunami?

I recently completed an article about the possibility of using a boat in place of a vehicle for your BOV. In the same article I stressed that one of the major downfalls of this idea was the possibility of Tsunami's occurring. Since this possibility is a real threat I thought it would be best to follow up and discus this issue in a bit more detail.

The NOAA has stated that since tsunami activity is increased greatly in the open seas there are certain cautions you should observe. As a pilot aboard an ocean vessel you should never attempt to return to your home port or any port for that matter if you are already at sea and the authorities have issued a warning in your area. The problem with Tsunamis is that they can quickly change the water levels and produce unpredictable and dangerous currents within boat docking areas. As the owner of a boat it would be in your best interests to maneuver your vessels further out towards the sea assuming there is time to do so. Generally people are forbidden from remaining on their boats when notification are issued for an approaching tsunamis.

Do not be misled by thinking that this ocean phenomenon only occurs in places such as the Asian theater or the surround locations of the Indian Ocean, for you would be falsely assuming. During the 1985 mainland earthquake that devastated Mexico City a tsunami was generated shortly after. In Nicaragua in 92 the town of Popoyo was completely wiped out along with 300 deaths as a result of a tsunami. The town of Pisco in Peru has been destroyed at least four times in the last five centuries by tsunamis. This tells me that no place is safe from a possible tsunami.

Several governmental agencies including FEMA and NOAA have increased their awareness of the possibility of a tsunami appearing along the United States coastal areas. It was this concern that initiated the program intended to predict the tsunamis arrival. As the tsunami begins crossing the ocean it passes over a series of sensitive recorders located on the sea floor. These instruments measure the various pressure changes felt in the ocean waters overhead. This information is then relayed to data satellites and ultimately transmitted to NOAA warning centers.

Even though we have all this sophisticated equipment a person still has to use common sense in making decisions. As an individual, in the event that you receive word of an exceptionally strong earthquake occurring in your vicinity do not remain there and wait for the official tsunami warning. Immediately get out of the way. If you are on land move to higher ground. If at sea in your boat you should do your best to reach some sort of shore however in the event that is impossible move to a safer location afloat and hold on tight.

Accounts from the logs and interviews with ship captains who have sailed over a particular region when an earthquake occurs have reported that they felt as if their ship had been hit by a pile of rocks. although in reality the ship was thousands of feet above the water. There were consistent reports of violent shaking as well as loud sounds of booming. This is a result of energy being radiated from the center of the earthquake in the form of what is called compression waves. These waves are similar to sound waves but as the compression waves strike the bottom of the vessel they bounce off and cause shaking.

In the event that you are a good distance from the earthquake you can expect that the tsunami was actually generated and you will eventually be hit by it. This results in your boat being at the mercy of the rising and falling of the sea current level. If you are at your dock the boat may hit the bottom of the sea or on the other hand float up until your anchor line is stretched to its max. Therefore the safest place would be in deeper water of perhaps 150 feet or more.

I have merely touched upon the subject in this short article and recommend that you contact your local coast guard unit for additional learning material. The USGS has published a pamphlet entitled "Surviving a Tsunami, the Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan" which is well worth reviewing.

How safe would a boat be during a Tsunami?

By Joseph Parish

Copyright @2010 Joseph Parish

www.survival-training.info

For more information relating to survival visit us at http://www.survival-training.info.

Surviving a Tsunami - The Samoa Experience in October 2009

If I think about surviving a tsunami I also think it will happen to somebody else -- not me. But on 2 October 2009 Samoan families and foreign tourists were shocked and shattered by the speed of the tsunami that roared over the reefs, lagoons and low, flat, plains of villages and resorts on the south coast of Upolu island. Drowned. Dead. Missing. Destroyed. Every family, local and tourist, lost something. One local family lost 35 members to drownings and injuries. How do you survive a tsunami.

Can you survive a tsunami?

It depends. You have to get to a location that is out of reach of the tsunami. You can be out of reach by getting to ground that is high enough. You can also be so far inland, on flat terrain, away from the coast, that a tsunami's force will be exhausted before it reaches your location.

In 2004 thousands of Bali citizens and tourists were drowned, or otherwise killed, by a huge tsunami that swamped hundreds of kilometers of Bali's coastline. Nevertheless some tourists and locals survived by running inland, along with wildlife, far enough to escape the full force of the Bali tsunami. Those survivors were lucky. So were some of the Samoa tsunami survivors in October 2009. Some survived despited the tsunami catching them on the flat, coastal, plains of Samoa's Upolu island. They survived by sheer good luck because -- along with those who were killed -- they were caught by the full force of the tsunami and somehow managed to hold onto a tree or object without being fatally injured by tumbling cars, trees, concrete, logs and other flotsam in the roiling waters.

A typical wave of water is like any wave in that it has an amplitude (distance from top of crest to bottom of trough) and a frequency (number of crests passing a fixed point in one second). In normal weather conditions you can count the waves coming onto a beach. Some waves are small. Some waves are big (that is they have a large amplitude). During one minute, sometimes 30 waves will break on the beach. This means the frequency is 30 waves divided by 60 seconds which equals 0.5 waves per second. At other times you might see 60 waves break on a beach -- in one minute. Then the frequency would be 1 wave per second. The greater the frequency the more the number of waves.

A tsunami's destructive force is caused by its extremely low frequency. For example, a tsunami wave that takes three minutes to pass fixed point will have a frequency of 1 wave divided by 180 seconds which equals 1/180 waves per second. That is a very long wave. It contains a lot of water. Tonnes of water. Tsunami observers and survivors call it "a wall of water." In one minute the weight of water passing a fixed point is 160 tonnes if the water is a one meter wide wall of water that is one meter high and moving at 1 kilometer per hour. If the same wall of water is 100 meters wide then 16,00 tonnes of water will land on the beach in one minute. If the wall of water is 100 meters wide and moving at 10 kilometers per hour (not 1 km/hr) then the same 100 meters wide (and 1 meter deep) wall of water will throw 160,000 tonnes of water onto the beach in one minute. That is a lot of water and the associated force will pulverise most things in its path. Also, that much water will roll inland, from the beach, a long way. The faster the tsunami wave travels as it lands on a beach, and the larger its amplitude, and the lower its frequency, the greater the destructive force.

I think you get the picture.

For example in the October 2009 Samoa tsunami many locals and tourists were still recovering from the magnitude 8.0 earthquake that shook the region. Barely ten minutes passed after the start of the quake. One Australian couple, holidaying on the south coast of Samoa's Upolu island had been shaken severely in their resort accommodation. Husband and wife made their way to the resort carpark so as to avoid falling debris during the earthquake. The tsunami caught the couple in the carpark. The husband hung onto his wife. As they tumbled in the roiling waters, the husband caught hold of a tree but lost his grip on his wife. She drowned. In the same tsunami on a tiny island, more of an islet, a few hundred meters off the shore at another resort on Upolu's south coast, a Kiwi school party had scrambled to high ground during the magnitude 8.0 quake. The party watched the tsunami sweep past their island and take all their possessions from the camp site.

A Radio New Zealand crew member described his experience of sudden fear and shock as he got up from a reclining position after watching water drain out of the big lagoon next to his beach-side hut. The crew member yelled "RUN," as he ran for his life away from the beach. Some of the people in other huts were caught. The run to high ground was not easy. There was a lot of vegetation in the way. Later, in the aftermath of the October 2009 tsunami, Samoans and locals on Upolu recounted their shock and grief. One local family lost four generations of members. One Kiwi family lost one child and re-gained two; all had been swept out to sea. Survivors, locals, Samoan police, New Zealand Army and Navy, Australian Army and Navy, worked for weeks to find the dead and drowned.

So, can you survive a tsunami. It depends. If the tsunami catches you by surprise then your survival chances are limited. Even if you are, somewhat, prepared but the vegetation and other obstacles are difficult for you to pass then your chances are limited. On the other hand, you can get lucky. Some locals were caught by the Samoan tsunami and got lucky. One woman, tossed about in the waters, caught hold of pole in the ground. She survived. And old man caught hold of a palm tree and survived. Others were not so fortunate.

Ulu Aiono, born in Samoa, is the entrepreneurial founder of Soifua Village Polynesia which owns the online business at http://www.hula-with-me.com/hula-muumuu-dress.html.

Fat Tsunami - How to Avoid This Recurring Unnatural Disaster

Every day millions of people experience the dreaded fat tsunami.

The sad fact is some people experience the fat tsunami so often they begin to accept it as normal. When I say fat tsunami I'm not talking about the ocean either. Some people may be used to this phenomenon and not even know it occurring. If someone does not notice it, when they do, the fat tsunami can be a life changing event.

The fat tsunami is when you feel the waves of fat all over your body.

The magnitude of the fat tsunami is different for every person and no one is immune.

As personal trainer, fitness enthusiast and bodybuilder I go through bulking and cutting phases throughout the year. The last bulking phase I was eating a lot, getting stronger and gaining what I thought was muscle.

My bulking phase came to an abrupt end.

A client was punching and kicking me during kickboxing training and I felt an unusual phenomenon. The reverberations from the kicking and punching on the kicking pad went through my body and caused the dreaded fat tsunami. I felt shaking of the subcutaneous fat which is fat under the skin. This put an end to my bulking cycle. The next week I did cardio every day and changed my diet to eat fewer calories and more fresh fruits and vegetables. I could not handle another fat tsunami.

If this can happen to a fitness enthusiast and personal trainer it can happen to anyone.

One of my most successful clients cites the fat tsunami for giving him the motivation to change the shape of his body. He was riding in a car on a bumpy road and noticed something which particularly bothered him. You guessed it; he was experiencing a fat tsunami all over his body. The next day he found my website, started a personal training program and joined weight watchers. Forty five pounds later he still remembers the feeling of the fat tsunami which he gives credit for controlling his diet and motivating him to continue his exercise program.

Does exercise stop the dreaded fat tsunami?

Whether you are obviously overweight or not so overweight but still experience symptoms of the fat tsunami there is much you can do about it. The first rather obvious solution is to start exercising. Weight training increases your metabolism. Cardiovascular training can burn off excess calories in the way of fat. A combination of the 2 is a superb way of synergistically increasing results.

It takes proper nutrition will stop the fat tsunami in its tracks.

Nutrition is even more important than exercise if you want to stop the fat tsunami. If you are not significantly overweight you may simply be retaining extra water due to excess sodium intake. Sometimes this retained water can make you feel as if you are fat even though you are not. You also may be bloated. This could be caused by eating something which does not agree with you or something you are unknowingly allergic to.

If you are overweight the next time you feel the fat tsunami let it serve as a warning sign. If you do not clean up your diet and start exercising you increase the risk of developing adult onset diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease among other problems. This article is meant to be fun, but I assure you having hypertension, atherosclerosis and diabetes is no laughing matter.

About the Author:

San Francisco Personal Trainer Michael Behnken, MS, NASM-CPT-PES, CSCS - http://AskTheTrainer.com

What Is a Tsunami And What Causes It?

A series of great sea waves generated by sudden underwater disturbances that displace a large volume of water mass from its equilibrium position is referred to as a tsunami. Tsunamis typically occur in oceans and seas but can occur in large lakes as well. Tsunami is not just one wave but the so-called "a wave train" - a series of waves that can be as long as 60 miles which may even sounds like a freight train.

Tsunamis are most often triggered by massive changes to the sea floor. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, explosions, underwater nuclear tests and, more rarely, impacts of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites or asteroids, i.e. any disturbance above or below the sea floor, have the potential to generate a tsunami. This usually happens when the sea floor abruptly deforms. The water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position and may cause the sea to rise vertically as high as 100 feet (30 meters). Tectonic earthquakes are a typical kind of underwater disturbance that displaces the overlying water mass which, under the influence of gravity, tends to regain its balance. This unexpected movement of the water creates a series of powerful waves. Subduction earthquakes are vertical movements of the earth's crust at plate boundaries and the slipping of oceanic plates under continental plates may also trigger a tsunami. Large earthquakes are often followed by submarine landslides that can disturb the overlaying water, too. Tsunamis may also be generated by submarine volcanic eruptions as well as by collapses of volcanic edifices. Underwater nuclear testing can trigger tsunamis but underground testing can trigger them as well. Unlike these, supermarine landslides and cosmic body impacts disturb the water from above. However, the tsunamis generated this way dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area.

Tsunamis generated in the deep ocean can sometimes be unnoticed on the surface. They can cross an entire ocean in a single day at speeds up to 500 mph (800 kmph) without losing much energy. Once a tsunami reaches the shore, its power is devastating. The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 is said to have a devastating power of 23,000 atomic bombs. However, the first wave may not be the most dangerous. The waves can be several minutes to an hour apart and the danger from a tsunami can last for several hours after the arrival of the first wave.

For other informan about What Is a Tsunami please visit site Intelligent Mag

Can You Outrun a Tsunami

Try to imagine a solid block of ocean hundreds of miles long, 3 miles deep, and as wide as the coastline, coming toward you at 500 to 600 miles an hour. That describes a tsunami in deep water racing toward land. A tsunami's speed slows as it encounters the coastline but the total water mass is still moving at 20 to 25 mph just before surging ashore. Maybe a world class distance runner who runs a 4- minute mile can stay ahead of an oncoming tsunami, but most of us are not world class runners. If it comes down to a race, the tsunami will win and the runner will lose almost every time. A tsunami rolling onshore is massive, powerful, and destroys everything in its path.

A major tsunami can start when sudden slippage occurs in a seafloor fault, triggering a major earthquake in the magnitude 8.0 to 9.0 range, and causing the seafloor on one side of the fault to sink and on the other to uplift, all in a matter of minutes. The earthquake plus the radical seafloor deformation displaces vast amounts of water, upsets the ocean's equilibrium, and sets a tsunami in motion.

A tsunami produced by this kind of event will tend to have long wavelengths, deep water columns, and high rates of travel speed. A wavelength is the distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of its trailing wave. The speed is determined by the ratio of the depth of the ocean to the length of the wave. The deeper the water and the longer the wave, the faster the tsunami moves. For example, a major earthquake and seafloor deformation at a depth of 20,000 ft. can initiate a tsunami with a wavelength of 175 miles, a water column depth of 15,000 ft., and a speed of between 500 and 600 miles an hour.

To illustrate the gradual drop in tsunami speed, when the depth decreases to 13,000 feet, the 15,000 ft. water column begins to drag the bottom, the wave length shortens to about 130 miles, and the speed drops to around 440 mph. At 6500 ft. depth, the wavelength shortens to less than 100 miles and the speed drops to around 300 mph. At 150 ft. depth, the wavelength reduces to 30 miles and the speed to approximately 100 mph. In 30 feet of water just before surging onshore, the wavelength is down to 6 miles and the tsunami's speed is 20 to 25 mph.

The height of the wave on the ocean's surface in deep water will tend to be only 2 to 3 feet and hardly noticeable among the normal ocean swells. A tsunami will usually pass unnoticed under the keel of a boat or ship in mid ocean, even though the wave may be as high as 100 feet when it surges onshore.

When the water depth decreases and the leading edge of the wave slows, the following wave at the tail end of the long trough is still traveling at a higher speed and rapidly closes the gap. The height of the tsunami increases dramatically as it nears shore due to compression from shoaling and from the rapidly closing trailing wave, and may be squeezed up to 100 feet high when it hits the beach. The 100-ft. towering wall of water is most often associated with shallow bays and narrow inlets where the tsunami acts like a giant tidal bore. On a broad beach type of coastline, the tsunami tends to come ashore as a rapidly rising sea. Along the broad beaches of Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, the 2004 Indonesian tsunami produced a sudden 30-ft. rise in sea level that surged onto land so quickly that few could get away. Over 225,000 people died in 8 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

Following the magnitude 9.1 Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26, 2004, in areas east of the epicenter Sumatra and Sri Lanka the trough of the first tsunami wave reached land ahead of the crest. When the trough arrives first, a phenomenon called drawdown occurs. If recognized, it can act as a warning for people in the area to move to higher ground before the tsunami hits. When drawdown happens, the sea level appears to sink and the tide recedes rapidly, leaving hundreds of yards of empty ocean bottom exposed. The drawdown is followed almost immediately by the oncoming crest and accompanying sudden rise in sea level as the tsunami charges full blown onto land. In areas west of the epicenter Thailand and India the crest and sudden rise in sea level struck first, without warning.

Since a tsunami tends to be made up of several waves, called a train, the waves in the train can hit at intervals of up to a half hour or more, depending on the length of the trough. The first wave to hit land is not always the largest. Frequently, it is the second or third wave that will prove to be the most destructive.

The distance a tsunami can travel inland once it hits the coast depends on the size of the wave and the slope of the land. The size of the wave is expressed as runup, a term meaning the height of the wave over mean high tide. In flat, low-lying areas, a major tsunami with a runup of 30 feet or more can reach areas 2 miles or more from the shoreline with devastating power.

If you are on or near the coastline when a tsunami warning is issued by your local authorities, follow evacuation directions and clear the area immediately. If you hang around to see how big the wave is, and then try to outrun it, you are almost certain to lose the race and your life.

Award-winning author Gordon Gumpertz is a former advertising agency owner and copywriter, a member of the Palm Springs Writers Guild, a UCLA graduate, and an instrument-rated private pilot. A native Californian, he lives with his wife Jenny in Palm Desert, California, only a few miles from the San Andreas Fault, where the Pacific Plate collides with the North American Plate. For more information about the author and his book TSUNAMI, visit http://www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com/

Emergency Preparedness For A Tsunami - Being Prepared To Face The Wrath Of The Sea!

In 2004, a powerful tsunami washed over coastal areas in Southeast Asia, extending all the way to Africa's west coast. The tsunami took more than 200,000 lives, and some people were never recovered or identified. Much of this loss might have been avoided had an effective emergency preparedness system been in place.

The 2004 tsunami may have been the most deadly in recorded history, but it was not the first - 25 of them were recorded in the 20th Century alone. And while many of them have happened in the South Pacific, tsunamis have been recorded all over the world, from Japan to Chile, from Italy to to the United Kingdom. New Zealand's geologic record documents a tsunami 125,000 years ago,and written history documents these disasters as early as 1580 B.C. (following the Santorini volcano).

Until very recently, scientists have not been able to predict when and where a tsunami will strike, making emergency preparedness very difficult. Caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides on the sea floor, today we can make and educated guess about when they will happen after such an event.

Today, regions at high risk may use a tsunami warning system to warn people before the wave reaches coastal areas. Computer models are used to predict the time and location of impact Until now, the exact location where tsunamis will strike cannot yet be predicted. But once an underground earthquake occurs, an alert is sent to coastal communities that something could go in that direction. Emergency preparedness efforts are more likely to succeed when these alerts are timely.

The famous "Ring of Fire," where many volcanoes have occurrred along the lines where tectonic plates meet in the Asian Pacific, was not adequately protected by an early warning system in 2004. This was a valuable lesson for coastal areas around the world, and scientists are working hard to prepare for future events in that area.

Emergency preparedness for tsunamis begins with early warning systems that include four elements: information, advisory, watch, and warning. When the system detects an underground earthquake, Hawaii's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center releases the news to the effected communities. Because it is too early to predict the size, time, or location of the potential tsunami at this stage, a more general advisory will be delivered to likely targets. It may take hours from the seismic event to the actual tsunami.

Where evidence suggests that a tsunami is likely but hasn't been witnessed or verified, early warning systems issue a watch alerting populations to the likelihoood. Emergency preparedness plans dictate that, at this time, people in coastal areas should be alert and watch the sea for signs, like a quick receding of ocean waters, that a tsunami is on its way. A siren may be used to alert the people, anywhere from three hours before the event is expected. If the water does begin to recede, a mandatory evacuation will begin.

Once a tsunami has been seen and verified, they issue a warning with more detailed information about where and when the giant wave will hit. A siren will again alert people. Once a warning is issued, people should already be moving out of the danger zone. They can go to high ground or try to go farther inland, taking fresh water, food, and extra clothing with them as they go. Part of the emergency preparedness effort includes announcements that will be made over the radio telling them when it's safe to return.

The early warning system continues to work during and after the event. People will remain in the area to monitor the situation and to cancel the warning if the tsunami does not materialize.

World leaders now recognize how important emergency preparedness is to potential tsunami victims. They encourage community leaders to develop plans and conduct exercises so that they know how long it will take to evacuate vulnerable areas. They should also have current estimates on the number of people in the area so that they'll know if people are missing after the crisis has passed.

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German Memory In Asia - A Tsunami Mission On The Shores Of Bay Of Bengal

While I was approaching the edge of the Indian Ocean, I observed there were some sea gulls speedily hurrying from sea to land. I was terrified thinking that another tsunami was approaching us. Though I didn't feel any strong quake, I was aware that an earthquake can trigger killer waves thousands of miles across the ocean and could generate hours later the tsunami waves.

I observed closely the Indian Ocean to see whether there was a difference since an approaching tsunami is preceded by a noticeable fall in the water level. A big wave was on its way.

I had heard of stories how people were killed, when they went down to the beach to view the retreating ocean exposing the sea floor unaware that the strange phenomenon was a forerunner of killer waves. I made a quick retreat to a nearby high ground. When I turned and looked at the German Praktikum (Internship) students they were at a distance discussing something with some locals.

The tsunami expert's recent statement that a receding ocean may give only five minutes' warning to evacuate the area has started to bristle within me, because tsunamis can approach the shore as fast as 100 miles per hour. I realized it would be too late to see the wave and then confirm whether the tsunami was on the way.

Though I moved back to the ruined high ground, I started to observe again the ocean movements. There were no receding waters but large waves had come towards the shore. It was so horrific to think that many of the tsunami victims were seen being swept out to sea when the ocean retreated.

A tsunami surge may be small at one point of the shore and large at another point a short distance away. I didn't want to assume that this was a minimal sign of a tsunami and was trapped by the retreating tsunami flood later on from other directions. I further went near the high ground and approached the place where the German students were. I was comparatively in a safe place and a little relieved from the tsunami fear. I observed a number of wrecked boats were on the ruined buildings.

As tsunami wave activity is imperceptible in the open ocean, if those vessels had not returned to port they might have escaped that fatal end. The way the boats had been flung to the interior of the land and the extent of the wreckage frightened me how the tsunami can cause rapid changes in water level unpredictably with dangerous currents and cause massive destruction in the harbor and port areas. If the fishermen had the right information on time and took their vessels out to sea, they might have saved their lives and boats as well.

The Pacific Ocean is fixed with sensitive recorders on the sea floor to measure pressure changes in the overhead water, sending the information to sensors on buoys, which, in turn, relay the data to satellites for immediate transmission to warning centers. As there was no warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, the tsunami eluded and caused the worst disaster in the history of the Indian Ocean Rim countries.

We moved towards the narrow lane, which was now everywhere covered with the sand and debris. We found it difficult to determine whether the lane through which we were walking was a busy thoroughfare just a few days ago. We were roaming over the ruined buildings and then walked along the beach. It was difficult to reconcile to the fact that a once flourishing heavily populated coastal hamlet had been annihilated in just a few minutes. Meanwhile the German T.V. crew was busy, documenting those devastations.

The LTTE member who was familiar with that area pointed at a ruined road and told us it was a marine drive earlier, linking the coastal areas. He told how the sea had made incursions into the land.

The tectonic plates at the bottom of the southern Andaman - Nicobar Island had been shifted upward and the seabed subsequently. The tectonic plate movement and the tsunami tidal waves are not new to this world. Tectonic plate movements have taken place for billions of years resulting in tidal waves as well when they emit energy out to the surface as massive earthquakes. Turning my direction towards the north, I was reminded of how some thousand years ago the city of Poompoogar was sunk by tidal waves.

Rajkumar Kanagasingam is the author of the fascinating book - German Memories in Asia......A collection of memories by the author in his discussion with German university students who have been volunteering in Asia on the sensitive issues of Early Human Migration, Asian & European historical events especially the German since the Roman Empire era to the times of First & Second World Wars and about the Germans around the world and their Migrations, Life styles, Encounters and Assimilations since the ancient times, his experiences in an American NGO as an officer in the rebel-held war-torn jungles and then in a tsunami relief mission there with German students, and the German students' life and fashion in Asia....

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Tsunami Warning Signs

Awareness of Tsunami Warning Signs is vital when travelling through or living in tsunami prone areas. An earthquake is a natural tsunami warning. If you feel a strong quake, do not stay in a place where you may be exposed to a tsunami. Listen to the radio or television for any information or alerts. If you are subscribed to TsunamiSMS make sure your mobile phone is always switched on and that the ring tone is loud enough to hear, even when you are asleep. If you have not yet taken the precaution to subscribe to TsunamiSMS, click here.

Witnesses have reported that an approaching tsunami is sometimes preceded by a noticeable fall or rise in the water level. If you see the ocean receding unusually rapidly or far it's a sign that a big wave may be on its way. Go to high ground immediately or make your way at least five kilometers inland.

Remember that a tsunami is a series of waves and that the first wave may not be the most dangerous. The danger from a tsunami can last for several hours after the arrival of the first wave. A tsunami wave train may come as a series of surges that are five minutes to an hour apart. The cycle may be marked by a repeated retreat and advance of the ocean. Stay out of danger until you hear it is safe.

A tsunami surge may be small at one point of the shore and large at another point a short distance away. Do not assume that because there is minimal sign of a tsunami in one place it will be like that everywhere else.

Stay away from rivers and streams that lead to the ocean.

Subscribe to a Tsunami SMS Warning System to protect yourself and your loved ones.

David Willis is the owner and founder of TsunamiSMS.com, a unique SMS tsuanmi warning system. Following the recent devastating Asian tsunamis, David was appalled at the death, injury, suffering and damages. Believing that something major needed to be done and could be done to save lives, he created his unique website giving subscribers, anywhere in the world, the opportunity to receive an accurate tsunami warning message in the form of a mobile/cell phone SMS. For more information, log onto http://www.TsunamiSMS.com.

Surviving A Tsunami - Tips To Prepare For A Tsunami Alert

Until December 2004, most of us thought of tsunamis as the makings of a good disaster movie, if we knew what "tsunami" meant at all. But with the awful devastation of 2004, we realized how much damage a tsunami can do.

What a Tsunami Is

Tsunamis are not large tropical storms caused by high winds. They are the result of undersea geological events like volcanoes, landslides, or earthquakes that occur with massive tectonic displacements. Earthquakes that reach 6.5 or above (Richter scale) can produce devastating waves that move at up to 300 miles per hour, reach heights of 100 feet, and last from several minutes to several hours from first wave to last surge.

In the open sea, the tsunami may not be noticeable, but when they enter shallower waters, the begins to "pile up" on itself, creating a massive wave that can destroy tall buildings and even travel inland for miles with great power.

Where Tsunamis Strike

Coastal areas in the Pacific Ocean basin are the most frequent targets of tsunamis, reflecting the greater vulnerability related to the famous "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates meet to form a great circle on the sea floor. Japan has experienced many tsunamis. In fact, tsunami is a Japanese word. They've also hit Alaska and Hawaii in the Pacific Basin and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic basin.

The Indian Ocean area has experienced many tsunamis as well, the 2004 tsunami taking more than 250,000 lives and destroying billions of dollars in property.

Preparing for a Tsunami Emergency

If you are in the water and feel a strong earthquake, leave the water immediately, getting as far from the beach as you can. Try to go to high ground, or go inland as far as possible if the ground near you is flat.

If you can see the incoming wave, you can't escape it. You simply don't have time. The best thing to do in that case is to get as high as you can as quickly as you can.

If you sense a strong earthquake and you are not at the beach, tune your radio to a local station that broadcasts during emergencies. They will notify the public in case a tsunami watch or warning has been issued, and they will let you know where emergency relief centers are.

At this point, you should know where your family members are. Make sure everyone knows about the alert. You should have an agreed-upon meeting place in case you're not all in the same place when the emergency is announced. Your meeting location should be as far from the shore as possible but not so far that people can't get to it in time.

Be sure to prepare for family members with special needs. If your family includes elderly, ill, or small children, be prepared to have help for them or try to evacuate them early. You may also want to prepare to evacuate your pets as well, bringing emergency food and water for them.

You should have prepared emergency supplies in your home. Bring them with you when you evacuate. At least take fresh water, some food, and extra clothing. Most important, have a first aid kit in case of injuries.

If you have time, you might try to secure your house, but not at the risk of your own life. There is little you can do to protect your possessions from an incoming tsunami, so focus on saving lives first.

Tsunami Watch or Tsunami Warning

The two terms have important different meanings. When authorities issue a tsunami watch, it means that a tsunami is possible, but no one has reported seeing one or a sighting hasn't been verified yet. A watch may include estimates for when and where a tsunami may strike.

When they issue a tsunami warning, it means that a tsunami has been reported and confirmed. By the time they issue the warning, the tsunami could be close. The warning will also let you know where to expect it to strike and when.

During the Wave

If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself at the mercy of an incoming tsunami, climb onto a rooftop or the highest point you can reach. The more stable the building, the safer the support will be. But get as high as you can no matter what. Hold on as tight as you can to any stable and heavy object available. If you must, climb a tree.

If you've already been overtaken by the water, grab something floating that's large enough to support you and hold onto it until you can find stable ground or get help. Grab anything that seems firm and try to get out of the water. The current will be strong, and you could be hurt by debris in the water. If you can get any part of your body out of the water, do so.

You have to accept that tsunamis, like most natural disasters, are uncontrollable. You will have the earthquake warning to give you time to escape.

Keep your head. Remain calm. The better prepared you are, the better your chances of surviving.

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How Dangerous Are Tsunamis, Really?

Since 2004, when the first big Tsunami occurred, we all realize how dangerous a Tsunami can be. Tsunamis are mainly caused by lifting sea floor and transferring the energy to the water. They can also be caused by underwater volcanic eruptions and even landslides.

Thousands of people lost their lives and the coastal areas were completely destroyed. The problem with a Tsunami is nobody can predict when and where it happens.

Even a strong earth quake under the sea is not predicting how much power the wave has, when the Tsunami travels thousands of kilometers on the ocean surface to an island or continent.

Even today the U.S. Geological Survey is not able to tell us the potential risk level of a Tsunami. They have data of the earthquake, but they can only assume the danger of a Tsunami. Since the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, we know how difficult it is to predict a Tsunami and its strength or direction.

Except for the largest Tsunamis in 2004, only a few Tsunamis have giant breaking waves. Often small Tsunamis are coming to the shores and are seen as strong and fast-moving tides.

Small Tsunamis happen every day. They are very often to far away from land or they are too small to have any effect when it hits the shore.

Researches provide information that The Pacific Ocean is creating most of the worlds Tsunamis. This is because of many existing volcanic undersea eruptions and overlapping sea plates. For example other countries are affected many hours later, when a large Tsunami occurs at the deep sea of South America.

Many scientists are working hard to install a global warning system for predicting Tsunamis, but the equipment for detecting and measuring dangerous Tsunamis is not giving enough data to provide good advice.

In any case it is better to warn the population, even when the waves are small and not noticeable as a Tsunami.

Peter DD Vizard has been writing articles online for nearly 4 years now. Not only does he specialize in diet, fitness and weight loss, you can also check out his latest website http://www.DiscountWoodWindowBlinds.com/ which reviews blinds like the popular Roman Window Blinds

The 2009 Tsunami Warning For Hawaii and California - Get Prepared Now

The recent 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Samoa caused a Tsunami to hit several Pacific Islands, killing over one hundred people.  Certainly a lower death toll than the Tsunami a few years back in December, but any loss is never a good thing.  An official reported that warnings were given out so people could retreat to higher ground, which most people did.  However, not everyone made it, resulting in the death toll we have been reading about.

What if one of these tsunamis hit the United States coastal cities, such as Southern California?  It definitely would leave a mark, that is for sure.  Since most of the coastal cities are barely above sea level, it would not be hard at all for a tsunami to devastate several of these coastal establishments.  Unfortunately, a tsunami is due for the Pacific coast.  The best we can do is prepare for the worst to minimize the results.

Maybe a tsunami will not hit us, but the "big one" (the nickname for the inevitable massive earthquake likely to hit Southern California) will cause massive amounts of damage and casualties.  Once again, all we can do is prepare for it, because we currently cannot predict when earthquakes will occur.

Many people have been following a recent trend in the past few years that is growing exponentially in popularity.  This is the 'preparedness' trend.  It started with the September 11th attacks, when citizens prepared for possible chemical warfare.  Now Californians are preparing for the big earthquake, the southern United States is preparing for increasingly intense hurricanes, and everyone else in between is preparing for a mix of things related to the possible and predicted "end of the world" in December of 2012.  The Mayans have predicted that this 'apocalypse' will consist of hundreds of different natural disasters all at once resulting in widespread destruction and loss of life.

There really is not a better time to start getting prepared for the worst.  The earlier the better as they say.

You need to prepare yourself and your loved ones for the worst, so visit The 2012 Official Countdown [http://www.2012officialcountdown.net]. It's filled with information on how to become exceptionally prepared for anything that mother nature could throw at us.

How much do you value your safety? I know it's on my top 10 list, that's for sure.

What is a Tsunami?

On 27 August 1883, a strong eruption almost destroyed the island of Karakoa. From this powerful explosion huge waves arose from the Ocean. The waves reached a height of 30 metres above sea level and managed to wipe out hundreds of villages with speeds of 1000 km per hour. People felt the after effects thousands of miles away in Australia and Canada.

In 1946, a big earthquake occurred at the bottom of the Ocean near the Aleutian Islands. One gigantic wave travelled over more than 3500 kilometres in only 4.5 hours and hit Hawaii. It threw houses and bridges in the air, and carried them hundreds of metres away. At that time 170 people drowned.

A tsunami like the ones described above is ranked high on the scale of natural disasters. Tsunami's waves are waves prompted by earthquakes. They don't look like common ocean waves which we can see near the coast, and they have nothing in common with wind and tides.

Scientists give a special name to these waves. They call them by the Japanese name tsunami. Tsunami means harbour waves. An earthquake wave or tsunami is triggered by some disturbance of the sea bottom, usually because of an earthquake at the bottom of the ocean. However, volcanic eruptions, some underwater explosions, landslides, mass movements above and under the water can lead to a tsunami.

After a disturbance, the ocean floor can suddenly rise or sink; the mass of water above it also rises or sinks. This strange movement of the water makes a series of strong waves. The first wave travels through the water the same as sound travels through the air. It goes really fast without losing energy. In the open ocean a tsunami can reach speeds of up to 950 kilometers per hour. When it approaches land, speed reduces and the height of the waves goes up. It increases in size and reaches places that normal high tides could never reach.

A tsunami can last for several hours or several days depending of its location. A tsunami is so powerful that it can strip off sand from beaches, pull off roofs and crush buildings. People and boats can do nothing about a tsunami. A tsunami cannot be prevented, but the impact can be reduced with community preparedness, timely warnings and effective emergency response. For example in Aonae, Japan 10 minutes after the earthquake tsunami started, many casualties were avoided as they were educated about tsunamis, they had developed evacuation plans, and above all, a warning was issued.

Read more on tsunamis and natural disasters at http://www.butwhy.com.au/what-is-a-tsunami

Read more of the authors work and the questions kids love to ask at butwhy.com.au