The elements are striving to erase humanity from the face of the Earth. It is this impression that can be drawn from the report of the UN Office for Disaster Reduction. Over the past couple of decades, material damage from natural disasters has increased by 151%. More than 1.3 million people died.
Earthquakes and the resulting large tsunamis are responsible for at least half of these deaths. And we will tell you about the biggest tsunamis in the last 10 years.
Tsunamis are formed when huge masses of water are set in motion. This occurs most often during earthquakes, but volcanic eruptions, landslides, or even underwater explosions can also be the cause.
In the ocean, giant waves sweep at a staggering speed, roughly equal to the speed of a passenger plane (800 km / h). Of course, the speed decreases when the mass of water comes closer to a solid surface. But it is still enough for a huge wave to literally wash away everything from the surface - including living beings.
10. Samoa, 2009
The death toll: 113 people.
One of the strongest tsunamis occurred in the Samoan Islands on September 29, 2009. At about 6:40 am local time at a depth of 33 km, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 occurred. The water started to move. It only took her about 8 minutes to reach the islands.
Then six meters high waves hit the coast. Despite the fact that scientists managed to inform people in advance about the impending disaster, one of the largest tsunamis of the 21st century destroyed several coastal settlements and tourist resorts.
9. Chile, 2010
Victims: 525 people.
On the night of February 27, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 occurred in the coastal regions of the country. The earth was shaking for only three minutes, but the consequences were felt on the entire coast, up to neighboring Argentina and Peru.
Caused by the earthquake, a terrible tsunami swept along the coast, destroying several Chilean cities and killing 525 people. However, the disaster did not stop there - the waves rolled to the San Diego area in California, causing minor damage, however, and even to the coast of Japan. There, water that had almost lost its energy was still able to damage several fishing vessels, causing damage of $ 66.7 million.
8. Sumatra, Indonesia, 2010
Losses: 435 people.
Seismic activity at the collision boundary of the Sunda tectonic plate with the Australian one is responsible for the Mentawai tsunami. This area has always been volatile.
So 9 years ago on October 25, an earthquake at the junction of two plates caused a major tsunami. All the anger of the elements was taken by a group of islands in the Indonesian archipelago called Mentawai. Three-meter high waves hit the ground, destroying 20 settlements. The death toll was 435 people, another 110 were missing.
7. Japan, 2011
The death toll: 15 896 people
On March 11, a magnitude 9 earthquake caused a devastating tsunami that swept across Japan's northeastern coast. Giant waves 10 meters high literally devastated the coastal regions of the island state. According to official information, 15,896 people were killed and 2,536 people were missing.The highest waves were observed on Miyako Island. According to eyewitnesses, they were 40.5 meters high.
A man-made disaster was added to the natural disaster - the largest tsunami in modern history provoked a nuclear explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Residents within a radius of 20 km from the station had to be evacuated. This great tsunami was the strongest in Japanese history, and one of the most destructive in the history of mankind.
6. Solomon Islands, 2013
Victims: no.
The Solomon Islands are unique in that they have a special seismic activity. An earthquake there can cause not only a shift of the Australian and Pacific plates relative to each other, but also the so-called "aftershock" - when a single earthquake triggers a whole series of weaker earthquakes.
It is doubtful that this uniqueness would greatly delight the inhabitants of the islands when another earthquake of magnitude 8 occurred at the junction of the plates on February 6. And although the tsunami it caused was not very large (the waves barely exceeded one and a half meters in height), many settlements on the coastline were destroyed long before the water hit them.
Fortunately, there were no human casualties, since the population, warned in advance, went to high areas. However, four villages were destroyed. The earthquake that followed earlier killed 13 people and went missing.
5. Chile, 2015
Losses: 15 people.
Only five years have passed since the Chilean earthquake in 2010, and now the anger of the elements hit Chile again. An earthquake with an intensity of 8.3 points occurred 46 km from the coast, causing a series of tremors ranging from 6.2 to 7 points.
And after a few minutes, waves of 4.5 meters high swept along the coast, destroying everything in their path. At least 500 buildings were damaged. In total, as a result of an earthquake and a powerful tsunami, 15 people died, 6 went missing, 90 thousand citizens of the country lost electricity, and 9 thousand of them were left without a roof over their heads.
4. New Zealand 2016
The death toll: no.
Even prosperous New Zealand suffers from time to time from earthquakes and tsunamis caused by them. The biggest of them happened on November 14, when the mountainous regions of the country felt tremors with a magnitude of 7.8. From a point at a depth of 15 km, rock breaks fanned out, and the rate of development of cracks reached 2 km per second.
The distance over which the faults spread exceeded 200 km. By the number of faults, the New Zealand earthquake is considered the strongest.
Such power could not but cause a huge tsunami - the waves reached a height of almost 7 meters. Fortunately, no one was hurt - the waves hit the northern side of Pigeon Bay, in which there was exactly one building - a rest house, which was empty at that time.
3. Greenland, 2017
Victims: 4 people.
But this big tsunami was not caused by an earthquake. A giant landslide, approximately 300 m wide and a kilometer long, fell from a height of 1 km into the Karrat fjord in West Greenland.
The rising wave struck the Eskimo settlement of Nuugaatsiak, as a result of which four died, nine people were injured, and 11 buildings were destroyed by water. Giant waves reached a height of 90 meters. This is supposedly the highest tsunami in history. Tremors are to blame for the collapse of the landslide.
2. Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2018
Losses: 4340 people.
Indonesia is hit again by one of the worst tsunamis in the world. On September 28, a strong earthquake struck the Minahasa Peninsula. The power of the tremors reached 7.5 meters.
The tremors, in turn, set off a chain reaction of weaker earthquakes. As a result, a huge mass of water hit the local regional center of Palu, sweeping away everything in its path. The waves were 4 to 7 meters high.
But even they were not as terrible as the liquefaction of the soil caused by water flows in the area of the city and its environs. The resulting mudflows began to flood what had not yet been swept away by water. Hundreds of people have died, and many more are missing. The earthquake and tsunami killed 4,340 people.
It is the largest disaster to hit Indonesia in 12 years since the infamous 2006 disaster, in which nearly 6,000 people died.
1. Java and Sumatra, Indonesia, 2018
The death toll: 426 people.
The biggest tsunami of the decade has recently hit the long-suffering archipelago. At 9 pm local time, the volcano Anak Krakatoa erupted. The eruption was so powerful that the part of the island on which the volcano stood (or which the volcano was) collapsed into the sea. There were at least 64 hectares of soil in the water, and the height of the volcano decreased from 338 to 110 meters.
Such a mass, suddenly submerged in the sea, could not but cause waves. Within half an hour after the eruption, the most dangerous tsunami hit the western coast of the country. More than 300 kilometers of the coastline were affected, the waves reached from 2 to 13 meters in height. 426 people were killed, more than 7 thousand were wounded, and 24 people were missing.