A tsunami is a catastrophic ocean wave that is usually caused by a submarine earthquake, an underwater or coastal landslide, or the eruption of a volcano. Tsunamis can also result from the impact of a meteor or comet in a body of water. The word tsunami in Japanese means "harbor wave.".
There are two main types of tsunamis: local tsunamis and distant tsunamis. Local tsunamis are relatively small and occur near the source of the earthquake, volcanic eruption, or landslide that generated them.
Tsunamis. Tsunami refers to a series of enormous waves with long wavelengths and lengthy periods generated in an ocean or a large lake by abrupt vertical movements of the ocean floor that leads to a displacement of a large volume of water within a short time. The name has been derived from the Japanese term 'tsunami,' where 'tsu' means 'port' and 'nami' means 'wave.'Tsunami Types. There are three (3) broad types of tsunamis: Local Tsunami. This is a tsunami where its destructive effects are experienced on coasts within 100 km from the source of the tsunami. In such cases, the travel timefor the tsunami is generally less than one (1) hour.Large tsunamis are significant threats to human health, property, infrastructure, resources, and economies. Effects can be long-lasting, and felt far beyond the coastline. Tsunamis typically cause the most severe damage and casualties near their source, where there is little time for warning.
Essentially, they are dynamically equivalent to seismic tsunamis, the only differences being 1) that meteotsunamis lack the transoceanic reach of significant seismic tsunamis, and 2) that the force that displaces the water is sustained over some length of time such that meteotsunamis cannot be modelled as having been caused instantaneously.
Earthquakes generally occur on three types of faults: normal, strike-slip, and reverse (or thrust). Tsunamis can be generated by earthquakes on all of these faults, but most tsunamis, and the largest, result from earthquakes on reverse faults.
Tele-tsunami/Ocean-wide tsunami/Distant tsunami: A tsunami originating from a source, generally more than 1,000 km or more than 3 hours tsunami travel time from the impacted coastline is called an ocean-wide or distant or tele-tsunami.
