tsunami

This unfinished page contains text from either the 2003 or 2005 print version of Encyclopedia of Surfing. An updated version, with more photos, is coming soon.

A fast-moving set of waves, sometimes hugely destructive, produced by an undersea earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. Usually referred to as "tidal waves," a tsunami in fact has nothing to do with tides; "tsunami" means "harbor wave" in Japanese. An earthquake alone can create a tsunami, but the effect is thought to be greatly amplified when an earthquake is followed by an underwater land...

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