In one of the paintings of the cycle "36 views of mount Fuji" great Japanese artist katsushika Hokusai depicted a giant tsunami wave. This mountain water is so huge, that it seems that outshines the mountain itself. Of course, we just artistic exaggeration achieved through skillful use the perspective effect. But the tsunami really have a terrible destructive power.


Katsushika Hokusai. "Big wave in Kanagawa". 1830

Disaster as ancient, and so modern

About sea floods that caused these waves, are well aware of the natives and residents of the coasts, particularly in the Pacific ocean. Rapid Taran tsunami was shot down everything in its path and, shlenov, were often left naked, lifeless land. They have destroyed in Chile Puerto Saavedra and Puerto Montt, and 50 thousand of sporting and 27 thousand inhabitants of the island of Honshu, and after the explosion of the volcano Krakatau dare all living things, and even the soil, with the Indonesian Islands Sabugo and Subesi.

At the end of 2004 they produced the destruction of most of the coast of South-East Asia, mainly in Indonesia, killing more than 300 thousand people. on March 11, 2011 after the submarine earthquake in 130 km from the coast of Miyagi Prefecture tsunami height of 10 meters hit Japan. Extensive flooding coast led to blackouts in millions of homes, stop NPP and other accidents. At the Fukushima-1" during the work on cooling stopped reactor explosion occurred, such as Chernobyl. TV land of the rising sun passed supernatural frames: the flow of water extending to the horizon, came on the coast, absorbing ships, cars and the whole building...

Tsunami periodically occur in the oceans because of underwater earthquakes. In the open sea for the ships they are practically invisible, where their height varies from several tens of centimeters to two to three meters in length from 150 to 300 kilometers. But, naratiwas on the shore, the waves grow in height and incredibly with the speed of an Express train burst far inland, destroying everything in its path.
This evil is as old as the world. During the excavations near the Arab village of RAS Shamra in Syria was found library clay tablets dated to the second Millennium BC. Archaeologists have deciphered the cuneiform, and managed to read the full sorrow story about how a wave of unprecedented heights struck once stood there, the capital of the ancient Ugarit, almost completely destroying the city.

In the Hellenistic timeline you can find an entry that says that in 358 CE, in August, a huge wave came rolling on the Eastern part of the Mediterranean sea, fully covering many small Islands, and in Alexandria abandoned ships from the harbour on the roofs of houses.

In the Kuril Islands and Japan

In 1737 tsunami hit the Eastern coast of Kamchatka - a whopping 70-meter wave, the largest of the known up to now.

The famous researcher of Kamchatka S. p. TO raseiniu in October 1775, saw the earthquake on the island of Shumshu and made an entry in his diary: "At the first Kuril Islands the island, Sumco called, shaking the earth was as follows. October the sixth day, the third hour of midnight, the first earth so violently shaking that many booths fell, and people could not stand, and it lasted a quarter of an hour... And when I stopped the shaking, the waters around from the sea with a great noise fathoms three arrived, which again immediately into the sea far away. On sajani water at another time, the earth trembled, only very easily, and once again the water from the sea to the same place again come, where for the first time was."

This region has always been generous in moretrjasenija. On the eve of new 1703 killed about 100 000 residents of Japan. Four giant water shafts attacked coast, penetrating deep into the land, sowing death and destruction. Strong tsunami hit in the fall of 1952 on the Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Eastern coast of Kamchatka.

The focus of the underwater earthquake was located relatively nearby, within the Kuril-Kamchatka trench. The wave quickly reached the Kuril Islands and on the Paramushir rose to a height of 18 meters. The town of Severo-Kurilsk consistently hit two waves, with a height of 5 and 10 meters. In may 1983 as a result of strong underwater earthquake in the sea of Japan emerged tsunami that killed 105 people, including a group of school children gathered at a picnic near the city of Akita.

Tsunami eyes Darwin

Your description of the tsunami left and the father of the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin who traveled the world. A giant wave he had to watch in the Bay of the Chilean city of Concepcion on 20 February 1835 during his voyage aboard the "Beagle". "Soon after the jerk at a distance of three or four miles was noticed by a huge wave. She approached, and in the middle of the Bay was smooth, but along the shore demolished the houses and trees and rushed forward with unstoppable force. In the depth of the Bay she broke into a series of terrible white breakers that have mounted up to 23 feet... Force of the breaker was, must be huge, as in Forte gun with a gun carriage weighing four tons was pushed them inside to fifteen feet. Among the ruins of two hundred yards from the shore stuck schooner. For the first wave was followed by two more, and many broken hulls of ships and boats have been washed away their reverse movement. At one end of the Bay, the ship was thrown away to the banks, then washed again beached and again carried away by water."

Large tsunami occurred on the coast of South America before. So, on October 28, 1746 near the Pacific coast of the continent earthquake, which resulted in a tsunami of up to 27 meters. On the coast of Peru they penetrated inland 4-5 kilometers, sweeping away everything in its path. Particularly affected the region of El Callao. The port of Callao near Lima was completely destroyed, survived only 4% of its population, 25 boats in the harbour disappeared. In total, the victims of the tsunami and earthquake was from 4000 to 7000 people.

The factor of luck

Getting in narrowing the bays or canyons, tsunami, and even grow to enormous quantities of 40-60 meters and higher. In June 1958 unusually strong catastrophe occurred in the Bay of Lituya in Southeast Alaska.
The earthquake caused an enormous landslide with the same glacier, which fell into waters of the Gulf. Izvergnulsya weight raised a wave height of up to fifty meters. Her energy was so great that the wave furiously rushed around the Bay, solistina the slopes of the mountains. In the interior pool, the shock waves on the beach was terribly strong. The Northern slopes of the mountains, facing the Bay, stripped. Where once was a dense forest, were now bare rock. Such a situation was observed at a height of 600 metres.

During a disaster in the lovely Bay fishermen were three fishing boat. From a violent shock fishermen dropped from the beds. In the eyes of the shocked people a huge wave came up and swallowed the Northern foot of the mountain, then rolled across the Bay, Stripping the trees on the slopes of the mountains. One boat is lifted up and carried across located at the entrance to the Bay is shallow in the open sea. In the moment when the boat shifted through it, the fishermen saw beneath trees. During this horrific jumps on the giant wave Longboat slumber about trees and their fragments. The boat sank, but the fishermen had miraculously survived two hours were saved. Of the other two fishing launches one survived, and the other with crew was missing.
Someone is lucky to survive in such a horrible situation, and someone unlucky even on your sofa. on December 26, 2004 36-year-old Danilo was the only inhabitant of Serbia affected by the giant wave that struck the Indian ocean coast.

During a natural disaster Serb sat at home and watched on television news when they started reporting about sweeping away everything in its path of the tsunami.
Danilo was so frightened by the scale of the disaster that escaping from the tsunami, jumped out of the window of his apartment, located on the second floor. Already in flight until he realized that southern Serbia is very far from the Indian ocean and for him there was no danger of a tsunami. But it was too late. In the end, Danilo broke her legs and hurt his back, and then sued on local TV.
However, this case is already curiosity.