Everything about Tsunami totally explained
A
tsunami is a series of
waves created when a body of water, such as an
ocean, is rapidly displaced.
Earthquakes,
mass movements above or below water, some
volcanic eruptions and other
underwater explosions,
landslides, underwater
earthquakes, large
asteroid impacts and testing with
nuclear weapons at sea all have the potential to generate a tsunami. The effects of a tsunami can be devastating due to the immense volumes of water and energy involved. Since
meteorites are small, they won't generate a tsunami.
The
Greek historian
Thucydides was the first to relate tsunamis to submarine quakes, He was thus the first in the history of
natural science to correlate quakes and waves in terms of cause and effect:
The cause, in my opinion, of this phenomenon must be sought in the earthquake. At the point where its shock has been the most violent the sea is driven back, and suddenly recoiling with redoubled force, causes the inundation. Without an earthquake I don't see how such an accident could happen.
The
Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus (
Res Gestae 26.10.15-19) describes the typical sequence of a tsunami including an incipient earthquake, the sudden retreat of the sea and a following gigantic wave on the occasion of the
365 A.D. tsunami devastating
Alexandria.
Tsunami and the Bible
Some recent work by scholars (Egyptologists, Israeli and others), geologists and oceanographers (including Dr Iain Stewart of University of Plymouth, UK), indicates that the
Santorini eruption (about 1615 BC) may have caused the devastation of the Egyptian armies that's mentioned in the
Exodus. The Exodus is dated as occurring between 1290 and 1340 BC. It is unlikely that the details were recorded in the immediate aftermath and there was probably a delay in the writing of the account. While there's a discrepancy of about 300 years, given the circumstances surrounding the dating of the Santorini eruption, it's possible that the two events did coincide. Further support for this is that the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean was marshland prior to the construction of the Suez Canal and was a known source of reeds. Is the "Red Sea" a wrong interpretation of the "Reed Sea," and did the Santorini or Minoan eruption coincide with the Exodus? There is ongoing research into this including drilling boreholes to look for tsunamite - the deposit left by tsunamis and other evidence to support or disprove this theory.
Further Information
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