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Term Definition
Significant Wave Height (Tsunami)

The average height of the one-third highest waves of a given wave group. Note that the composition of the highest waves depends upon the extent to which the lower waves are considered. In wave record analysis, the average height of the highest one-third of a selected number of waves, this number being determined by dividing the time of record by the significant period. Also called characteristic wave height.

Storm Surge

A temporary rise in sea level associated with a storm's low barometric pressure and onshore winds.

Swell

Wind-generated waves that have travelled out of their generating area. Swell characteristically exhibits a more regular and longer period and has flatter crests than waves within their fetch (seas).

Tele-Tsunami or Distant Tsunami

A tsunami originating from a far away source, generally more than 1,000 km away. Less frequent, but more hazardous than regional tsunamis, are ocean-wide or distant tsunamis. Usually starting as a local tsunami that causes extensive destruction near the source, these waves continue to travel across an entire ocean basin with sufficient energy to cause additional casualties and destruction on shores more than a 1,000 km from the source. In the last 200 years, there have been at least 21 destructive ocean-wide tsunamis. The worst tsunami catastrophe in history occurred in the Indian Ocean on the 26th December, 2004, when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off of the northwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia produced a ocean-wide tsunami that also hit Thailand and Malaysia to the east, and Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, and Africa to the west as it traversed across the Indian Ocean. Over 225,000 people lost their lives, and more than 1 million people were displaced, losing their homes, property, and their livelihoods. The magnitude of death and destructiveness caused immediate response by the world's leaders and led to the development of the Indian Ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system in 2005.

Tidal Wave
  1. The wave motion of the tides.
  2. Often incorrectly used to describe a tsunami, storm surge, or other unusually high and therefore destructive water levels along a shore that are unrelated to the tides.
Tide

The rhythmic, alternate rise and fall of the surface (or water level) of the ocean, and of bodies of water connected with the ocean such as estuaries and gulfs, occurring twice a day over most of the Earth and resulting from the gravitational attraction of the moon (and, in lesser degrees, of the sun) acting unequally on different parts of the rotating Earth.

Tide Guage

A device for measuring the height (rise and fall) of the tide. Especially an instrument for automatically making a continuous graphic record of tide height versus time.

Tide Station

A place where tide observations are obtained.

Travel Time

Time required for the first tsunami wave to propagate from its source to a given point on a coastline.

Tropical Storm

A tropical cyclone with maximum winds less than 34 m/sec (75 mile per hour). Compare with hurricane or typhoon (winds greater than 34m/sec).

Tsunameter

An instrument for the early detection, measurement, and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. Also known as a tsunamimeter. The DART® system and cable deep-ocean pressure sensor are tsunameters.

Tsunami

Japanese term meaning wave (“nami”) in a harbour (“tsu”). A series of traveling waves of extremely long length and period, usually generated by disturbances associated with earthquakes occurring below or near the ocean floor. (Also called seismic sea wave and, incorrectly, tidal wave). Volcanic eruptions, submarine landslides, and coastal rockfalls can also generate tsunamis, as can a large meteorite impacting the ocean. These waves may reach enormous dimensions and travel across entire ocean basins with little loss of energy. They proceed as ordinary gravity waves with a typical period between 10 and 60 minutes. Tsunamis steepen and increase in height on approaching shallow water, inundating low-lying areas, and where local submarine topography causes the waves to steepen, they may break and cause great damage. Tsunamis have no connection with tides; the popular name, tidal wave, is entirely misleading.

Tsunami Amplitude

Usually measured on a sea level record, it is:
1) The absolute value of the difference between a particular peak or trough of the tsunami and the undisturbed sea level at the time, 2) Half the difference between an adjacent peak and trough, corrected for the change of tide between that peak and trough. It is intended to represent the true amplitude of the tsunami wave at some point in the ocean. However, it is often amplitude modified in some way by the tide gauge response.

Tsunami Bore

A steep, turbulent, rapidly moving tsunami wave front, typically occurring in a river mouth or estuary.

Tsunami Generation

Tsunamis are most frequently caused by earthquakes, but can also result from landslides, volcanic eruptions, and very infrequently by meteorites or other impacts upon the ocean surface. Tsunamis are generated primarily by tectonic dislocations under the sea which are caused by shallow focus earthquakes along areas of subduction. The upthrusted and downthrusted crustal blocks impart potential energy into the overlying water mass with drastic changes in the sea level over the affected region. The energy imparted into the water mass results in tsunami generation, i.e. energy radiating away from the source region in the form of long period waves.

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