Amira Webbert

Prof. Scanlan

Tsunamis

           (1) Goldstein, Jack, et al. 101 Amazing Facts about Natural Disasters, Andrews UK Ltd., 2015. ProQuest eBook Central.

           (2) Tsunamis are one of the main deadliest disaster that can ever occur in mankind. Earth is surrounded by land and a large body of water, the earth goes through changes like the human body goes through changes, and each change causes a different amount of pain for all mankind. For example, the human body goes through changes that can be very harmful to us and that can also kill us like cancer, accidents, and most recently, COVID-19, but nothing will ever compare to the amount of pain society goes through when a disaster like a tsunami hit. Tsunamis are not common in most areas but is very much known, and the pain of losing someone to a tsunami or even being apart of it and facing your own damage by it can be very painful and tragic like any other deadly experience. Tsunamis can reach up to about 25 meters and one of the deadliest tsunamis in modern times took place on December 26, 2004, caused by an earthquake reaching that magnitude over 9, making the earthquake the 3rd most powerful ever recorded along with the deadliest tsunami itself. Five million tons of debris was washed out into the sea back in Japan in 2011 and is still shown into the American and Canadian shores to this day. (3) In my opinion, what I have read was very surprising, and I say this because without this article, I would not have known that Japan got it worse when it comes to Tsunami, I would have thought that any other locations like Thailand or L.A would have it the worse, especially because I have seen movies and shows about these locations and the tsunamis and hurricanes that occurred there also. (4) I think the authors are credible for their writing style, credentials, and purpose on this topic because they focused on the main hotspot for a tsunami and the amount of damage it caused without just simply stating that a tsunami hit, and it caused damage. They gave details, sizes of the tsunamis and earthquakes that caused these tsunamis, the names they were given and more. (5) I believe these authors chose this genre because it was interesting, and most scientist/ people still find it surprisingly to this day as to why such a large earthquake will not cause even the tiniest tsunami, but a tiny earthquake will result in such a devastating tsunami. (6) Therefore, one key quote I am confused about while reading this book is, “it was however only in the late 20th century that scientists began to properly appreciate the mechanics of these often devastating events”; and I find this confusing because tsunamis have been around for 2500 years, so why is it that scientist basically just started caring about one of the deadliest disasters that can destroy in seconds randomly.