Floods and Tsunamis (0)

Floods and Tsunamis
Flood is a natural event or occurrence where a piece of land that is usually dry land, suddenly gets submerged under water. Some floods can occur suddenly and recede quickly. Others take days or even months to build and discharge. When floods happen in an area that people live , the water carries along objects like houses, bridges, cars, furniture and even people. It can wipe away farms, trees and many more heavy items. Floods occur at irregular intervals and vary in size, duration and the affected area. It is important to note that water naturally flows from high areas to low lying areas. This means low-lying areas may flood quickly before it begins to get to higher ground.
Flooding is extremely dangerous and has the potential to wipe away an entire city, coastline or area, and cause extensive damage to life and property. It also has great erosive power and can be extremely destructive, even if it is a foot high.
A tsunami (pronounced sue-nahm-ee) is a series of huge waves that can cause great devastation and loss of life when they strike a coast.
Tsunamis are caused by an underwater earthquake, a volcanic eruption, an sub- marine rockslide, or, more rarely, by an asteroid or meteoroid crashing into in the water from space . Most tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes , but not all underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis - an earthquake has to be over about magnitude 6.75 on the Richter scale for it to cause a tsunami. About 90 percent of all tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean.
Many tsunamis could be detected before they hit land, and the loss of life could be minimized, with the use of modern technology , including seismographs (which detect earthquakes), computerized offshore buoys that can measure changes in wave height, and a system of sirens on the beach to alert people of potential tsunami danger.