What are the myths about tsunami?

There are many myths surrounding tsunami behaviour. Here we address some of the most common ones.

A tsunami is a single giant wave

No, a tsunami is a series of low, fast and long ocean waves that is caused by a sudden displacement of a large body of water. The sudden displacement occurs often over a large area and the waves move out in all directions.

A tsunami is a huge cresting wave

While tsunami can be large, they are usually seen as a series of low but long powerful waves with massive momentum. They rarely crest like normal ocean and wind swell waves you may see at the beach.

A tsunami is a huge slow wave when in the middle of the deep ocean

Even though tsunami can be travelling close to 950 kilometres per hour in the deep ocean, they are generally unnoticeable because they are often very low.

A tsunami is a tidal wave

Tsunami are sometimes called 'tidal waves' but this is misleading. Although the impact of tsunami on a coastline can be affected by tide level, tsunami are unrelated to tides. Tidal waves are caused by tidal affects like the moon, wind or seasonal change while tsunami are most commonly caused by undersea earthquakes.

Click on the arrow to watch footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. You will see a series of waves that
impacted the coast. In this instance the second wave was the largest.