Tsunamis can be devastating natural disasters — destroying homes and nuclear power plants and leaving thousands of deaths in their wake. In some cases, entire villages are wiped off the face of the Earth with little trace.
While these giant waves can be caused by a number of incidents, including landslides and volcanic eruptions, one of their primary drivers are earthquakes. Wondering how exactly the shaking of the Earth leads to walls of unstoppable seawater?
Earthquakes usually occur due to the movement of tectonic plates. “Tsunamis are caused by any sudden movements of the seafloor or the lake floor,” says Kate Clark, a coastal earthquake geologist at GNS Science, a crown research institute in New Zealand.
By far the most common way to generate a tsunami, she continues, is when one plate pushes up and over another one under the sea: “That causes widespread subsidence. The seafloor goes up on ...
