After a bout of what shook the world over, tsunami is perhaps the most glaring example of what is perhaps understood as the absolute wrath of the Almighty.
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Tsunami, as we understand it
Tsunamis are frequently (and inappropriately) called "tidal waves" and are a serious concern whenever an off-shore earthquake is detected. Although tsunamis are only a meter or so high as they propagate in the deep ocean, they can grow to several meters by the time they reach shore. These are typically generated by earthquakes or underwater landslides; and although rare, these are like dormant volcanoes that can shake your world up at any given time. In earthquakes, the strain energy is released and propagated away primarily in the form of p- (longitudinal) and s- (shear) waves propagating through the solid earth. If the earthquake is in the ocean, a portion of this energy is also carried by the free surface of the ocean. In this sense, the tsunami is simply one of the natural modes of vibration of the earth-ocean system.
Of course tsunamis have nothing to do with the tides driven by the gravitational forces between the earth and the moon. Thus, to call a tsunami a "tidal wave" is not only inappropriate, but is likely to lead to confusion among lay-people. By large tsunamis are just ordinary water waves and comply with the same physics as waves in your coffee cup or bathtub. However, as they are generated by geophysical forces they also have the potential to carry geophysical energy and momentum levels which can be devastating to mere humans!
One of the interesting characteristics of tsunamis is that they can travel at speeds approaching 500 mph while in the deep ocean, making it unfit for the characteristics of a wave, leave alone a tidal wave. In turn, this observation is due to the fact that the tsunamis are frequently shallow