Before one can truly understand the devastation and destruction these natural disasters can cause,

Current thinking is that these waves are not common in the United States so why should people waste their time learning about them. Well the fact is that these waves are extremely devastating and destructing and even though the United States hasn’t experienced one first hand for some time they have begun to hit closer and closer to home over time. For example, on April 1, 1946, there was an earthquake that registered 7.1 on the Richter Scale in the Aleutian Islands (off the coast of Alaska). Five hours later the largest and most destructive tsunami, for this area, stuck the Hawaiian Islands. In some areas, the waves penetrated more than a half a mile inland. A total of 159 fatalities were reported. In 1964, an Alaskan earthquake generated a tsunami with waves between ten and twenty feet high along parts of the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts. This tsunami caused more than $84 million in damage in Alaska and reported a total of 123 fatalities. Scientist, currently, are keeping their eye on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa. The only information they have so far, is that some time in the next few thousand years, a huge section of La Palma, weighing 500,000 million tons, will fall into the Atlantic ocean due to a volcano on the island erupting. Scientist predict that this eruption will generate a wave that will be inconceivably destructive; bigger than anything anyone has ever seen. It will penetrate out and travel clear across the Atlantic Ocean, in a matter of hours, engulfing the entire east coast of the United States from Boston to Miami. According to geologist and tsunami expert, Dr. James Goff, “more people will die from impact injuries or being crushed than by drowning. People will have their skin ripped off by sediment in the water. And just when they thought it was all over, people and debris would be sucked back out to sea by the receding wave” (Quirke, The Dominion).

People need to be aware and be prepared. For many years these deadly natural disasters have been real reality for Japan. But the truth is tsunamis are a reality for everyone, everywhere. Due to the lack of warning for the tsunami that devastated the Hawaiian Islands in 1946, scientist and government agencies got together and decided something needed to be done. They felt that even though there is no way to stop a tsunami once it has been generated, there has to be a way for people to avoid getting

Some topics in this essay:
World Encyclopedia, Koenig Science, Civil Defense, , United Territories, Warning Center, Hawaiian Islands, Tsunami” Current, La Palma, James Goff, natural disasters, generated tsunami, people aware, water level, hawaiian islands, ocean world encyclopedia, la palma, miles speed, sea surface, pacific tsunami, tsunami warning, tsunami warning center, pacific tsunami warning, world encyclopedia “tsunami”, deep water tsunami,