Tsunamis: Know What to Do

[Music] good afternoon class for today's science lesson we're going to learn about tsunamis oh man do we have to class what you're going to learn in this lesson could save your life someday can anyone tell me what a tsunami is a tsunami is a big wave that's right Jasmine actually it's a series of ocean waves that can affect coastal areas like beaches and Bays tsunami is from the Japanese word for Harbor wave Mr King what causes tsunamis well Sandy tsunamis are commonly caused by earthquakes beneath the sea floor class I know you just finished your music lesson with M Tempo and while I'm sure that was fun I need you to stop fiddling around with your instruments and pay attention to our lesson on tsunamis now um where was I oh yes way out in the ocean tsunami waves can be thousands of miles long and hundreds of miles apart and in the very deep ocean the waves can travel as fast as a Jet Plane up to 600 mph can people on a ship way out in the ocean feel the waves that's a good question Chloe tsunami waves cannot be felt or seen by ships at Sea the waves of a tsunami in the ocean are small maybe only a few inches high but what's everybody All Shook Up about thank you thank you very much Rocky that's quite enough once a tsunami starts approaching land that's when it becomes dangerous the first first wave slows down in shallow water causing the waves behind it to Bunch up together which makes the waves taller so a small wave only 12 in high in the deep ocean May grow to a monster wave 100 ft high or many times taller than buildings as it sweeps over the shore but usually it's more like a fast rising flood with very strong currents tsunamis can cause a lot of damage on the shore wiping out houses cars and hurting people Once An Earthquake happens beneath the ocean how long does it take for the waves to reach the shore well it depends there are two types of tsunamis there are local or near Source tsunamis that can happen from nearby earthquakes and which take only a few minutes to reach the coastal areas the second kind of tsunami is a distant Source tsunami occurring from an earthquake hundreds of miles away and this can take 3 to 22 hours to reach coastal areas is there any kind of warning PR tsunami I'm glad you asked John the national weather service has two warning centers the Pacific tsunami warning center in Hawaii and the west coast and Alaska tsunami warning center in Alaska the scientists at these warning centers can figure out when a distant tsunami will arrive and will notify emergency officials who will tell people in coastal areas to evacuate or leave the area if they know a tsunami is coming so if we're at the beach like now or near the coast how do we know if there's a local or near Source tsunami there are several warning signs and this is the most important part of today's lesson when you're at the beach and you see the water receding or pulling back from the shore that's a key sign so if you see an unusual disappearance of water immediately move Inland away from the ocean and head for Higher Ground another sign is when you're near the ocean and you feel a very strong earthquake we're talking about an earthquake that knocks people off their feet or where you can count shaking for 20 seconds or longer if either one of these happens you want to evacuate Inland to Higher Ground right away you may even hear a loud ocean Roar in each of these cases keep calm and immediately move to Higher Ground ideally 100 ft above sea level which is as tall as a 10-story building or move at least one mile Inland away from river valleys and if you hear about a tsunami warning never go to the coast to watch for it remember tsunamis can be very dangerous well that's it for today's science lesson okay raise your claw if you now know what to do for tsunami great now who wants to tell me what they've learned about tsunamis and what we're supposed to do okay [Music] Chloe tsunamis are big weights that come from near or far the one thing we don't want to do is to be caught off guard tun we know what to doam go away from the ocean blue if we see the big deep blue sea pull way back from Shore then we don't hang out to find a in store knock it at your door [Music] if the C goes when the earthquake starts to shake then we allate but dead evacuate we won't stay around but head from Higher Ground or move quickly in away from the sand tunami tunami we know what to doam tun away from the oce BL away from the oce away from the oce [Music] blue [Music] tsunamis are big weights that come from near far the one thing we don't want to do is to be caught off guard tsunami tunami we know what to do tsunami tsunamis go away from the ocean BL if we see the great big Lu Sea Pull way back from Shore then we don't hang out out to find out what's in store knocking at your [Music] door if a cow goes to 20 when the earthquake starts to shake then we don't hesitate but instead evacuate we won't lay around but head for Higher Ground or we'll move move quickly in land away from the sand tsunami tsunamis we know what to do tsunami tsunamis go away from the ocean blue away from the ocean blue away from the ocean [Music] blue

Channel: National Weather Service (NWS)

Views: 247,126

Keywords: Tsunami (Disaster Type), Education (Word), Preparedness

Id: 8wRIO5FscXg

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 18 2014