Tsunami

A tsunami (plural: tsunamis or tsunami; from Japanese. "harbour wave"; English pronunciation is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, generally an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes,volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impactsand other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.[3] Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to as tidal waves. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves withperiods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train".[4]Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in his late 5th century BC, History of the Peloponnesian War, that tsunamis were related tosubmarine earthquakes,[5][6] but the understanding of a tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.

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Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Thane (IMD designation: BOB 05, JTWC designation:06B, also known as Cyclone Thane) was the strongest tropical cyclone of 2011 within the North Indian Ocean. Thane initially developed as a tropical disturbance within themonsoon trough to the west of Indonesia. Over the next couple of days the disturbance gradually developed further while moving towards the northwest, and was declared a Depression during December 25, before being declared Cyclonic Storm Thane during the next day. As it was named, Thane started to turn towards the west under the influence of asubtropical ridge of high pressure before its development slowed down during December 27, as a strong outflow and marginally favourable sea surface temperatures fought with persistent vertical wind shear. After its development had slowed down during December 27, Thane became a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm during December 28, before as it approached the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, it weakened slightly. Thane then made landfall early on December 30, on the north Tamil Nadu coast between Cuddalore and Puducherry and rapidly weakened into a depression.

vertical wind shear. A tropical cyclone is generally referred to as a hurricane (from the name of the ancient Central American deity of wind, Huracan) in the Atlantic basin, a cyclone in the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific, and a typhoon in the Northwest Pacific region. "Windstorm" redirects here. For the type of storm in Europe, see European windstorm. For the Gloria Jones album, see Windstorm (album). .

[12]

A shelf cloud associated with a heavy or severethunderstorm over Enschede, Netherlands

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphereespecially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong wind, hail, thunder and/or lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical cyclone, windstorm), or wind transporting somesubstance through the atmosphere as in a dust storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc. Storms generally lead to negative impacts to lives and property such asstorm surge, heavy rain or snow (causing flooding or road impassibility),lightning, wildfires, and vertical wind shear; however, systems with significant rainfall can alleviate drought in places they move through. Heavy snowfall can allow special recreational activities to take place which would not be possible otherwise, such as skiing and snowmobiling.

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