ean? - as you can tha are related o coast. o disadvantages of living on the coast. _ people ha e grown up fearing tidal waves. In the past, students might rarrIed off the term "tidal wave" in a list of natural disasters including -~- es. rore fue, blizzards, and tornadoes. What many people are learning now is - a- idal ave" i a vague and general term and tha t tsunamis actually have ~ -=- g ,()do "ith tide . Tsunami is the Japanese word for "harbor wave" and these .es ay reach devastating heights of 100 feet or more. Unlike storm surges, which el re eaused bv hurricanes, tsunamis are usually caused by earthquakes in the ocean. /6 -=-:..: ave can be formed at any time, wit out warning, and have been known to li t nea . truck off the ground when B hit the coast. They move as fast as 150 to 200 _. _ per hour. One famous tsunami that wiped out the town of Hilo, Hawaii in the uznmer of 195 killing one hundred fifty-nine people, was caused by an earthquake- iggered landslide 2,500 miles away in the Aleutian lslands of Alaska. The isplacement of water from that landslide sent the tsunami rolling half way across the - Paci .... e unril it hit something that could slow[illdown. $ You only have to live in a coastal area in order to worry about tsunamis. TheJ quake that cause them occur on the sea floor, sending energy through the water -- :: reata mall seismic waves. These otherwise unremarkable waves do not grow ecome dangerous until they come m o contact with the shallow waters of -_. es, harbors, or bays. ER: PRONOUNCED "soo-NAH-mee" ome cientists have used the comparison of throwing a pebble into a still pond example of how tsunamis work;..If the pebble were a meteorite, the ripples that ::!"avel away from the point of impact would be like the energy that could create a nami in shallow coastal waters. It is also possible for island volcanoes in the pacifiTI 00 cause tsunamis near the coastlines of continents. Pacific rim volcanoes have particularly explosive eruptions and ú.hcirl ash and lava can cause landslides in the ocean that can lead to tsunamis. ~ It is impossible to tell how high a tsunami will be until it hits the shore, which hey do with little al' no warning. Although researchers have estimated that a majar tsunami anly stnkes the West Coast of the United States every 300 to 400 years, the last was estimated ta have been caused by an earthquake in the 1700's and experts say that caastal tawns in states like California are totally unprepared today and at high risk. @ Camman safet tips for dealing with tsunamis include graund or e upper staries of high rises ar even e 1m 23