The smallest tsunami. The biggest waves in the world

Megatsunami in Lituya Bay, Alaska, USA is the most destructive wave in the world (its length is more than 500 meters). The disaster took place on July 9, 1958. It was the biggest natural disaster ever known to science... A little later, scientists called the phenomenon "megatsunami".

Causes of the disaster

The giant wave is caused by a magnitude 8 earthquake off the Alaska Peninsula. The tremors caused a huge landslide that threw a massive glacier and piles of rocks into the water into Gilbert Bay. They became the main reason the emergence of a giant wave.

Consequences of the disaster

Major casualties were avoided: ten fishermen died and vegetation along the coast was destroyed. The memoirs of eyewitnesses say that "the mountains trembled terribly, the stones rushed down rapidly, then suddenly they disappeared, and a giant wall of water appeared."

Presumably, similar tsunamis have occurred here before with an interval of several decades. The tsunamis that occurred were also enough great height, but the trace of their impact were finally eliminated by a natural disaster in 1958.

Next megatsunami

Megatsunami in Lituya was the first case for science when a giant wave was caused not only by an earthquake, but also by a landslide.

One of the strongest tsunamis was the aftermath of the earthquake in Indian Ocean December 26 in 2004. It's a deadly, natural disaster in modern history... The devastating wave has dealt a huge blow to Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Somalia. The capital of the Maldives, Male, was severely damaged during the tsunami. Certain areas of the city had to be rebuilt.

The number of deaths as a result natural disaster estimated 235 thousand people.

Sadly, many of the victims are tourists who have taken vacations on the shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

1) Tsunami in South-East Asia – 26.12.2004
Giant waves formed by a powerful underwater earthquake of magnitude 9.3 by Richter. Waves of gigantic heights, they struck at different times on the coasts of several countries in Southeast Asia and even reached the shores of West Africa. The world warning system did not save from the destructive wave, despite the fact that the satellites of the Americans detected the beginning of the tsunami 15 minutes after the earthquake. American meteorologists were unable to report the tragedy that claimed the lives of about 300 thousand people. For them, America’s politicians were puffed up, delivering humanitarian aid and claiming that aid to the affected countries was in the political interests of the United States.

2) Alaska, USA - 03/28/1964
On March 28, 1964, at 5:30 pm, an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 by Richter struck Prince William Sound. It was the most powerful earthquake in Alaska - it has been compared to an explosion equivalent to 12,000 atomic bombs! The disaster resulted in the death of 122 people, most of them went missing - most likely, they were washed away by water. Tsunami waves reached 67 meters - this is the maximum recorded height.
On "Blessed Easter Friday," the highest wave wiped out 3 villages in Alaska, where 107 people died. 4 people died in Oregon and 11 people in California. This happened when a giant wave was sweeping along the West Coast of the United States. The city of Weldaz was completely destroyed, most of the office and business buildings in the center of Anchorage were completely destroyed. The fish processing and crab factories on Kodiak Island looked like a series of explosions had passed through them.

3) Lituya Bay, (Southwest Alaska, USA) - 07/09/1958
An earthquake at the Fairweather Fault provoked a massive landslide from the slope of a mountain located above Lituya Bay (more than three hundred million cubic meters stones, soil and ice). This gigantic mass crashed into the waters of the northern part of the bay and caused a giant wave 52.4 meters high, traveling at a speed of 160 km / h.

4) Izu and Miyake Islands (east of Japan) - 01/09/2005
In 2005, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale struck the eastern shores of Japan. Meteorological services of Japan announced the approach of a tsunami about 10 minutes after the first aftershocks.
After the alarm sounded, rescue services evacuated the inhabitants of the Izu Islands from the coast to safer places, except for special observers. The wave moved to Miyake Island for about 30 minutes. According to experts, such a fast wave, even with a half-meter height, could be a threat to people.

5) Severo-Kurilsk (USSR) - November 5, 1952
In the fall of 1952, the eastern coast of Kamchatka, the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu, found themselves on the way to the raging elements. The 1952 tsunami in Severno-Kurilsk is recognized as one of the five largest in the history of the twentieth century.
Severo-Kurilsk was completely destroyed. It razed the Kuril and Kamchatka villages of Levashovo, Utesny, Pribrezhny, Rifovy, Kamenisty, Galkino, Podgorny, Okeansky, Major Van, Shelekhovo, Baikovo, Savushkino, Kozyrevsky, Babushkino ...
That autumn of 1952, the country did not suspect anything. The Soviet press did not get information about the tsunami in the Kuril Islands, or about the hundreds and thousands of those killed and missing.
6) Alaska, (USA) - 03/09/1957
Another terrible tsunami caused by the earthquake in Alaska - March 9, 1957 on the Andreanov Islands. The earthquake reached 9.1 points on the Richter scale. The tremors generated as many as two tsunamis, the approximate height of the waves reached 15 and 8 meters, respectively. The element claimed the lives of 300 people. The earthquake provoked the eruption of the Vsevidov volcano on the Umnak island, which had been sleeping for more than 200 years before.
The aftereffects of the tremors were also felt on the Andrianov Kos Island, where the buildings were damaged, two bridges were destroyed, and the roads were cracked. More global destruction was caused by the subsequent tsunami, it reached the Hawaiian Islands, the shores of California, Japan and Chile. In Hawaii, two villages were completely razed to the ground, property damage amounted to $ 5 million.

7) Papua New Guinea - 07/17/1998
On the evening of July 17, an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale struck Papua New Guinea. The epicenter was 640 km offshore in the open ocean, just opposite the small town of Aitape. The tremors were practically not felt on land. Several people woke up, but hardly paid much attention. After 15-20 minutes, the first of 3 giant waves hit the island.
Retreating, the waves dragged behind them people, cars and buildings. Low-strength houses could not withstand the pressure of the waves, they were also dragged into the ocean. 2,200 people died.

8) Concepcion Chile - 02/27/2010
An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 on Richter was recorded 115 kilometers north of the city of Concepcion, located close to the center. The earthquake caused great destruction. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center gave information that the tremors caused a tsunami. The experts clarified that the wave height reached three meters. The number of victims reaches 300 people.

9) Solomon Islands (archipelago) - 2.04.2007
On April 2, 2007, at 7 a.m. local time, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale struck the South Pacific Ocean. The tremors were recorded near the Solomon Islands at a depth of ten kilometers.
A number of states in the South Pacific have warned of the threat of a tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Alert Center announced the possibility of a wave off the Solomon Islands and the nearby island of New Guinea. For other states in the South Pacific, a low level of threat was declared. Evacuation was not carried out.

10) Japan Coast - 09/06/2004
110 km from the coastal part of the Kii Peninsula and 130 km from the coast of Kochi prefecture, two fairly strong earthquakes struck, with a power of about 6.8 and 7.3 on the Richter scale, resulting in a tsunami. The waves reached a meter height. Several dozen people became victims of the water element.

The worst earthquake and tsunami in the past decade happened in Japan in 2011 ().

May 29th, 2016

When I read about the wave height caused by the tsunami in 1958, I couldn't believe my eyes. I checked it once, then another. It's the same everywhere. No, probably all the same, they made a mistake with a comma, and they all copy from each other. Or maybe in units of measurement?

Well, how else, this is how you think, there may be a wave from a tsunami 524 meters high! HALF KILOMETER!

Now we will find out what really happened there ...

An eyewitness writes:

After the first push, I fell off the bunk and looked towards the beginning of the bay, where the noise was coming from. The mountains trembled terribly, stones and avalanches rushed down. And the glacier in the north was especially striking, it is called the Lituya glacier. Usually it is not visible from where I was at anchor. People shake their heads when I tell them that I saw him that night. I can't help it if they don't believe me. I know that the glacier is not visible from where I was anchored in Anchorage Harbor, but I also know that I saw it that night. The glacier rose into the air and moved forward, so that it became visible. He must have climbed several hundred feet. I'm not saying that he just hung in the air. But he shook and jumped like crazy. Large chunks of ice fell from its surface into the water. The glacier was six miles away from me, and I saw large chunks falling off of it like a huge dump truck. This went on for some time - it's hard to say how long - and then suddenly the glacier disappeared from sight and a large wall of water rose above this place. The wave went in our direction, after which I was too busy to say what else was happening there.

This happened on July 9, 1958. An unusually strong disaster occurred in Lituya Bay in southeastern Alaska. In this bay, which juts into the land for more than 11 km, geologist D. Miller discovered a difference in the age of trees on the hillside surrounding the bay. From the annual rings of trees, he calculated that over the past 100 years, waves have appeared in the bay at least four times with a maximum height of several hundred meters. Miller's conclusions were viewed with great suspicion. And on July 9, 1958, to the north of the bay, there was a strong earthquake at the Fairweather Fault, which caused the destruction of buildings, the collapse of the coast, the formation of numerous cracks. And a huge landslide on the side of the mountain above the bay caused a wave of record height (524 m), which swept at a speed of 160 km / h over a narrow, fjord-like bay.

Lituya is a fjord located on the Fairweather Fault in the northeastern Gulf of Alaska. It is a T-shaped bay 14 kilometers long and up to three kilometers wide. The maximum depth is 220 m. The narrow entrance to the bay is only 10 m deep. Two glaciers descend into the Lituya bay, each of which is about 19 km long and up to 1.6 km wide. Over the century preceding the described events, waves of more than 50 meters in height have already been observed in Lituya several times: in 1854, 1899 and 1936

The 1958 earthquake caused a subaerial rockfall at the mouth of the Gilbert Glacier in Lituya Bay. As a result of this landslide, more than 30 million cubic meters rocks collapsed into the bay and led to the formation of megatsunami. As a result of this disaster, 5 people died: three died on the island of Hantaak and two more were washed away by a wave in the bay. In Yakutat, the only permanent settlement near the epicenter, infrastructure facilities were damaged: bridges, docks and oil pipelines.

After the earthquake, a study was carried out of a subglacial lake located to the northwest of the bend of the Lituya glacier at the very beginning of the bay. It turned out that the lake sank 30 meters. This fact served as the basis for another hypothesis of the formation of a giant wave with a height of more than 500 meters. Probably, during the descent of the glacier, a large volume of water entered the bay through an ice tunnel under the glacier. However, the flow of water from the lake could not be the main reason for the occurrence of megatsunami.

A huge mass of ice, rocks and earth (about 300 million cubic meters in volume) rushed down from the glacier, exposing the mountain slopes. The earthquake destroyed numerous buildings, cracks formed in the ground, and the coast slipped. The moving mass crashed into northern part bays, filled it up, and then crawled to the opposite side of the mountain, tearing off the forest cover from it to a height of more than three hundred meters. The landslide generated a giant wave, which literally carried the Lituya bay towards the ocean. The wave was so great that it swept over the entire sandbank at the mouth of the bay.

The people on board the ships that anchored in the bay were eyewitnesses to the disaster. From a terrible shock, they were all thrown out of their beds. Jumping to their feet, they could not believe their eyes: the sea rose up. “Giant landslides, raising clouds of dust and snow on their way, began to run along the slopes of the mountains. Soon their attention was attracted by an absolutely fantastic sight: the mass of ice of the Lituya glacier, located far to the north and usually hidden from view by a peak that rises at the entrance to the bay, It seemed to rise above the mountains and then majestically fell into the waters of the inner bay. It was all like some kind of nightmare. Before the eyes of the shocked people, a huge wave rose up and swallowed the foot of the northern mountain. ; falling like a water mountain on Cenotaphia Island ... rolled over the highest point of the island, which rose 50 m above sea level. the energy was so great that the wave rushed furiously along the bay, sweeping the slopes of the mountains.In the inland basin, the impact of the wave on the coast was probably very strong nym. The slopes of the northern mountains, facing the bay, were bare: where a dense forest used to grow, there were now bare rocks; such a picture was observed at an altitude of up to 600 meters.

One longboat was raised high, easily carried over the sandbank and thrown into the ocean. At that moment, when the launch was carried across the sandbank, the fishermen on it saw standing trees under them. The wave literally threw people across the island into the open sea. During a nightmarish ride on a giant wave, the boat banged against trees and debris. The longboat sank, but the fishermen miraculously survived and were rescued two hours later. Of the other two launches, one safely withstood the wave, but the other sank, and the people on it disappeared without a trace.

Miller found that the trees growing on the upper edge of the exposed area, just below 600 m above the bay, were bent and broken, their fallen trunks pointing towards the top of the mountain, but the roots were not pulled out of the soil. Something pushed these trees up. The tremendous force that accomplished this could not have been anything other than the top of the giant wave that swept the mountain that July evening in 1958. ”

Mr. Howard J. Ulrich, on his yacht, called "Edrie", entered the waters of Lituya Bay at about eight in the evening and anchored at a depth of nine meters in a small cove on the south coast. Howard says that all of a sudden the yacht began to sway violently. He ran out onto the deck and saw how in the northeastern part of the bay the rocks began to move due to an earthquake and a huge block of rock began to fall into the water. About two and a half minutes after the earthquake, he heard a deafening sound from the destruction of rock.

“We saw for sure that the wave came from the direction of Gilbert Bay, just before the earthquake ended. But at first it was not a wave. At first, it looked more like an explosion, as if a glacier was breaking apart. The wave grew from the surface of the water, at first it was almost invisible, who would have thought that then the water would rise to a half-kilometer height. "

Ulrich said that he watched the entire process of the development of a wave that reached their yacht in a very short time - something like two and a half or three minutes, since it was first noticed. Since we didn't want to lose the anchor, we completely etched the anchor chain (approximately 72 meters) and started the engine. Halfway between the northeastern edge of Lituya Bay and Cenotaph Island, one could see a 30-meter-high wall of water that stretched from coast to coast. When the wave approached in the northern part of the island, it split into two parts, but after passing through the southern part of the island, the wave again became a single whole. It was smooth, only there was a small scallop on top. When this mountain of water came to our yacht, its front was quite steep, and its height was from 15 to 20 meters. Before the wave came to the place where our yacht was, we did not feel any lowering of water or other changes, except for a slight vibration that was transmitted through the water from tectonic processes that began to operate during the earthquake. As soon as the wave approached us and began to raise our yacht, the anchor chain crackled violently. The yacht was carried towards the southern coast and then, on the return course of the wave, towards the center of the bay. The top of the wave was not very wide, from 7 to 15 meters, and the trailing edge was less steep than the leading one.

When a giant wave swept past us, the surface of the water returned to its normal level, but we could observe many turbulent eddies around the yacht, as well as irregular waves of six meters in height, which moved from one birch of the bay to another. These waves did not form any noticeable movement of water from the mouth of the bay to its northeastern part and back.

After 25 ... 30 minutes, the surface of the bay calmed down. Near the shores, many logs, branches and trees torn from the roots could be seen. All this rubbish drifted slowly towards the center of the Lituya Bay and towards its mouth. In fact, during the entire incident, Ulrich did not lose control of the yacht. When the Edrie approached the entrance to the bay at 11 pm, a normal current could be observed there, which is usually caused by the daily ebb of ocean water.

Other eyewitnesses to the disaster, the Svenson couple on a yacht called the Badger, entered Lituya Bay at about nine in the evening. First, their ship approached Cenotaph Island, and then returned to Anchorage Bay on the northern shore of the bay, near its mouth (see map). The Svensons anchored at a depth of about seven meters and fell asleep. William Swenson's dream was interrupted by the violent vibration of the yacht's hull. He ran to the control room and began to time what was happening. A little over a minute from the moment when William first felt the vibration, and, probably just before the very end of the earthquake, he looked towards the northeastern part of the bay, which was visible against the background of Cenotaph Island. The traveler saw something, which he initially took for the Lituya glacier, which “rose into the air and began to move towards the observer. “It seemed that this mass was solid, but it jumped and swayed. In front of this block, large chunks of ice were constantly falling into the water. " After a short time, "the glacier disappeared from the field of view, and instead of it a large wave appeared in that place and went in the direction of the La Gaussi spit, exactly where our yacht was anchored." In addition, Swenson drew attention to the fact that the wave flooded the coast at a very noticeable height.

When the wave passed the Cenotaph Island, its height was about 15 meters in the center of the bay, and gradually decreased near the coast. She passed the island approximately two and a half minutes after she was first noticed, and reached the yacht Badger after another eleven and a half minutes (approximately). Before the arrival of the wave, William, like Howard Ulrich, did not notice any lowering of the water level or any turbulent phenomena.

The Badger yacht, which was still at anchor, was lifted by the wave and carried towards the La Gaussi spit. At the same time, the stern of the yacht was below the crest of the wave, so that the position of the vessel resembled a surfboard. Swenson looked at that moment at the place where the trees growing on the La Gaussi spit should have been visible. At that moment they were hidden by water. William noted that there was a layer of water above the tops of the trees, equal to about twice the length of his yacht, about 25 meters. After passing the La Gaussi spit, the wave very quickly began to decline.

In the place where Svenson's yacht stood, the water level began to drop and the ship hit the bottom of the bay, remaining afloat not far from the coast. 3-4 minutes after the impact, Svenson saw that the water continued to flow over the La Gaussi Spit, carrying logs and other debris of forest vegetation. He was not sure if this was not the second wave that could carry the yacht across the spit into the Gulf of Alaska. Therefore, the Svenson couple left their yacht, moving to a small boat, from which they were picked up by a fishing boat a couple of hours later.

At the time of the incident, there was a third ship in the Lituya Bay. It was anchored at the entrance to the bay and was sunk by a huge wave. None of the people on board survived, presumably two were killed.

What happened on July 9, 1958? That evening, a huge rock fell into the water from a steep cliff overlooking the northeastern coast of Gilbert Bay. Tsunami record for wave height The collapse area is marked in red on the map. The impact of an incredible mass of stones from a very high altitude caused an unprecedented tsunami, which wiped out all living things that were located along the entire coast of the Lituya Bay up to the La Gaussi Spit. After the passage of the wave along both shores of the bay, not only vegetation, but even soil remained, there was bare rock on the surface of the coast. The damage area is shown in yellow on the map.

The numbers along the coast of the bay indicate the height above sea level of the edge of the damaged land area and roughly correspond to the height of the wave that passed here.

sources

Tsunamis are constant companions of earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. Giant waves are destroying entire cities, taking thousands of lives. How do they arise and what are they capable of? The time has come to tell about the largest tsunami in history.

In 80% of cases, megawaves are caused by earthquakes caused by the displacement of huge layers of land on the ocean floor. The sharp movement of the platforms causes fluctuations in millions of tons of water, which rushes from the epicenter to the shores.

This is similar to the effect of a stone thrown into water. Less commonly, tsunamis give rise to landslides and volcanic eruptions, when huge masses of earth and rocks abruptly descend into the water.

Tsunami Facts You May Not Know

Tsunami comes unnoticed. In the open ocean, waves usually reach a height of only a few meters, and only near the shore does the water rise and hit the land with all its might.

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The harbinger of a tsunami is a sharp ebb. Not everyone knows about this. Seeing that the water recedes quickly, many people remain on the shore, watching unusual phenomenon and gathering seashells as the ocean prepares to strike the killing blow.

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It is widely believed that a tsunami is a wall of water as high as a high-rise building. In fact, waves can only grow up to 6-7 meters high. In a tsunami, it is not the wave itself that is terrible, but what comes after it - huge masses of water that flood the coast with a continuous and rapid stream.

novilist

Over the past hundred years, many powerful tsunamis have occurred in the world that shook the world.

The worst tsunami in history

The most deadly tsunami was recorded in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. Two huge tectonic strata, which had been abutting against each other for a long time, could not withstand the stress. One of the platforms rose sharply above the other and moved forward several meters. This caused a 9-point earthquake, one of the strongest on record. As a result, huge masses of water rushed at high speed to the shores of Asia and Africa.

The first and most devastating blow fell on Indonesia. Waves from 12 to 30 meters high destroyed cities and villages.

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An hour after the earthquake, the tsunami reached Thailand. No one foresaw trouble, there were many tourists on the beaches who did not immediately understand what was happening. Thousands of people lost their lives.

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Three hours after the start of the catastrophe, megawaves swept the coasts of Sri Lanka and India, and a few hours later the tsunami reached Africa.

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The disaster killed more than 230,000 people and left 1.6 million people in Asia and Africa homeless. The video footage captured by eyewitnesses of the disaster.

Sometimes nature plays evil jokes and destroys what it once created. One of the most dangerous phenomena is the tsunami. A huge wave resulting from an earthquake can engulf everything in its path. But the whole world will remember some tsunamis for a long time, and they can be safely called the most destructive in history.

The ten most damaging tsunamis:

The strongest tsunami in 2006 was formed on the island of Java. The epicenter of the earthquake that triggered the disaster was in the Indian Ocean. And about 40 kilometers of the coast of the island was completely destroyed. The waves demolished telephone lines, buildings, houses on their way. And since the tremors began in the evening, when many tourists were swimming in the ocean, the number of victims became simply enormous. According to some reports, about 650 people died, and 120 thousand were declared missing. About 47 thousand inhabitants of Java have lost their homes. And since new tremors shook the coast for several hours, the search and rescue of the victims became much more difficult. And this tsunami is recognized as the most destructive in the history of the island and the most brutal.
In 1998, a large tsunami hit the shores of Papua New Guinea. The appearance of waves, the height of which in some places reached 15 meters, was provoked by a powerful earthquake that began on the northwestern coast of the country. Moreover, the tremors emanated from the most isolated part of the coastline and led to a huge underwater landslide. There were two shocks in total, but even at 1100 kilometers from the epicenter, they were well felt. In remote regions, the sea level has risen by five centimeters, which is a very significant increase. And although the inhabitants of this region are accustomed to natural disasters, this tsunami was still the most powerful in the history of the country. It destroyed thousands of houses and claimed the lives of about 2,000 people, so it is remembered to this day and is unlikely to ever be forgotten.
In 1960, on May 22, the most powerful earthquake in the entire history of mankind was recorded, the magnitude of which was as much as 9.5 points. And the Pacific Ocean, of course, responded with a series of tsunamis that hit coastal areas. In some places, the wave height reached 25 meters. But it was not only the Chilean coast that suffered from the destructive power of the water. About 15 hours after the first tremors, the waves reached the Hawaiian coast. And after another seven hours they reached the coast of Japan. In total, then about 6 thousand people died. Many were left homeless, as the water rushed at a breakneck speed and did not spare anyone or anything.
In 1952 in Severo-Kurilsk at about five in the morning there was the most powerful earthquake, the magnitude of which, according to various sources, ranged from 8.3 to 9 points. And it caused a tsunami, which consisted of three waves, the height of which reached 18 meters. They completely wiped out an entire city from the face of the earth and claimed the lives of 2,336 people. And the cause of this natural disaster was the strong tremors that occurred in the Pacific Ocean, about 130 kilometers from Kamchatka. Moreover, the first wave hit the territory an hour after the earthquake. And many residents noticed her in time and managed to retire to the hill. But then everyone returned to their homes, believing that all the worst was over. And it was this that killed everyone, because after a while a second wave came, which destroyed almost all houses and killed local residents. Then there was the third wave, but it was weak, and the first two had already destroyed everything. And yet, many were saved and evacuated to Sakhalin. And later they began to build the city anew.
Megatsunami happened in 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska. Because of it, only five people died, but the wave was the highest in the entire history of mankind, because its height was about 500 meters! And the reason for such a catastrophe was an earthquake that occurred 20 kilometers from the bay. After the tremors, which were recognized as the strongest in the history of the state, a huge landslide descended from the mountain into the bay, which provoked the waves. They severely damaged many infrastructure facilities: oil pipelines, docks, bridges, and so on. Later, scientists explored a subglacial lake located near the Lituya glacier. It turned out that it sank more than 30 meters. But still, the runoff of water from this reservoir could not provoke such powerful tremors. So the causes of the earthquake and tsunami are still unknown.
The tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004 can also be included in the top 10 world catastrophes. It all started with an earthquake with a magnitude of about 9.3 on the Richter scale, which was recorded at about 8 am local time. After him, several countries at once (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and part of India) covered huge waves who destroyed literally everything on their way. It is sad that this event took place on December 26, that is, after Catholic Christmas. And therefore, many tourists who decided to celebrate this event at the resorts never returned home. The total number of victims has not yet been calculated, according to some sources it ranges from 240 to 300 thousand people. The epicenter of the tremors was in the Indian Ocean, and already 15 minutes after they formed waves up to thirty meters high. They reached the coast after seven hours. Moreover, no one expected a disaster, and it caught many by surprise and destroyed.
A powerful tsunami hit Japan in 2011. On March 11, an earthquake began near the east coast of Honshu Island, the magnitude of which was more than 9 points. The tremors provoked a huge tsunami that affected the northern islands of the Japanese archipelago. According to official figures, the total number of deaths due to the earthquake and tsunami was about 15,870 people. And 2846 people are still missing. The epicenter of activity was located about 130 kilometers from the city of Sendai, located on the island of Honshu. And after the main and strongest shock, the so-called aftershock began, which led to more than 400 aftershocks. Moreover, a series of tsunamis spread almost throughout The Pacific Ocean, resulting in mass evacuations in some coastal countries, saving millions of people.
Chile was hit by a severe tsunami in 2010. And although five people died directly from the wave itself, the destruction was still catastrophic. And if we consider that not only the ocean was shaking, but also the earth, then one can understand that the damage from this natural disaster was simply colossal. About twenty minutes after the first shock, a wave hit the coast. And although its height was only about 2-3 meters, this did not prevent it from destroying most of the territory, due to its tremendous speed. As a result, two million residents were left homeless. After the earthquake, about 800 people died and 1200 went missing. The tsunami itself affected 11 cities in Chile, as well as the coastline of some other countries: New Zealand, Australia, Japan and even Russia.
In the early morning of August 16, 1976, the small Philippine island of Mindanao was struck by a strong earthquake, the magnitude of which was about 8 points. And although it was not the strongest, it still went down in the history of the country as the most destructive and tragic one. The tremors provoked a tsunami that literally crashed into the coastline and caught tourists and locals alike by surprise. As a result, about 5,000 people died and another 2.2 thousand went missing. The number of injured included 9,500 people, and about 95,000 lost their homes. Many cities in the Philippines have been literally wiped out.
In 1993, an earthquake struck about 80 miles outside Hokkaido, which triggered a massive tsunami. And although the Japanese authorities, taught by bitter years of experience, reacted very quickly and clearly, announcing the possibility of a tsunami and starting an evacuation, Okushiri Island nevertheless turned out to be isolated, so that literally a few minutes after the first aftershocks, huge 30-meter waves covered it. Of the 250 local residents, 197 died.