Course Title: Tsunami

Prerequisite:  None

Credits:  2

A tsunami is a series of waves when a body of water is rapidly displaced on a massive scale.

The inner structure of our planet is made up of plates, which is referred to as the Earth's crust. These plates are formed by huge rocks, constantly in motion and constantly grinding against each other. When two of these plates meet, one side can be forced to go under the other, this area is called a subduction zone.

A tsunami occurs in these subduction zones, which lie under water, when two plates push so hard against each other that one plate bends and then thrusts back, causing a huge wave, but not a normal wave where only the water on the surface is moving. In a tsunami, a whole column of water, from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, is moving. This fast moving column is displaced upwards by the raising ground level near shores, and ends by causing havoc on oceanic waterfronts as huge waves.