Tsunami

The tsunami is one of the most powerful natural disaster

of the world. It takes away about 7900 lifes each year and
makes another thousands of people lose their home. So
where does it come from? And how we can avoid it?

I.

The cause of tsunami

There are three main cause of tsunami: land slide, earth quake and
volcanic activities. An example that earthquake happens where an
oceanic and continental plate move towards each other. The heavier,
denser oceanic plate is forced under the continental plate. As it sinks
below the continental plate the oceanic plate melts due to friction in
the subduction zone. So, it pushes the water up and sometimes causes
a tsunami.

II.

(Im not good at paint)

Experiment determining the speed of mini waves

We had done a simple experiment to determine the speed of
water waves using a tank, water, tape, scale and a time

clock. We taped the scale on one side of the tank, then let
the water flows into it. Each time the water level reached a
check point, we lifted the tank up at the same point every
time then put it down and used the time clock to see how
much time did it takes the wave to travel back and forth two
times. After that we make a table to see the average speed
of the wave. At the end, we agree that the speed of wave
depend on the water level. The higher the water level, the
faster the wave goes.
Depth
(cm)

Time for 2
laps (s)

2nd Time for 2

laps (s)

3rd Time for 2

laps (s)

Average Time for 2

laps (s)

0.25

5.55

5.41

5.01

5.323333333

0.5

4.24

4.41

4.28

4.31

3.33

3.43

3.42

3.393333333

1.5

2.83

3.03

2.8

2.886666667

2.54

2.39

2.51

2.48

2.5

2.2

2.38

2.32

2.3

2.05

2.05

2.17

2.09

1.79

1.79

1.89

1.823333333

1.69

1.69

1.66

1.68

1.64

1.55

1.64

1.61

1.61

1.6

1.52

1.576666667

1.47

1.57

1.38

1.473333333

And the graph we got look like this:

V
(cm/s)

18.7
85
23.2
02
29.4
7
34.6
42
40.3
23
43.4
78
47.8
47
54.8
45
59.5
24
62.1
12
63.4
25
67.8
73

d(m)

0.002
5
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08

V
(m/s)

V^2(m^2/s
^2)

0.18
8
0.23
2
0.29
5
0.34
6
0.40
3
0.43
5
0.47
8
0.54
8
0.59
5
0.62
1
0.63
4
0.67
9

0.035288
46
0.053832
61
0.086845
43
0.120007
04
0.162591
05
0.189035
92
0.228932
49
0.300793
09
0.354308
39
0.385787
59
0.402272
39
0.460678
53

the speed of wave

0.8
0.6
Speed (m/s)

0.4
0.2
0
0 0.010.020.030.040.050.060.070.080.09
Depth (m)

the speed square

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
0.5
0.4

f(x) = 6.38x + 0.03

Speed square(m^2/s^2) 0.3

0.2
0.1
0
Depth square (m^2)

As we can see, the points line into a straight line, so like I have said in
the above, the speed of wave depends on the depth of sea.
We found out that the number 6.3846 was too low. The actual number
is higher than that. So the problem may be that we measure this
experiment in a narrow tank so it smaller than the sea, the scale could
be tape too high or we timed it not right.
III.

Predict the tsunami

So we have the speed of waves equal to square root of total of 9.8

times the depth of the sea so if we need to predict the speed of the sea
when it travel across of the Indian sea, It will be (9,8 x 3300) =
179,83 (m/s) = 647.61 (km/h)

From Sumantra epicenter to Sri Lanka Is about 1600 km, so it will take
about 1600 : 647.61=2,47 (h)
I think it would come later than that because the closer it come to the
land, the slower it would be.