The science of tsunamis

Triggered by quakes, tsunamis occur at sites where tectonic plates rub against each other, causing a distortion. The disturbance generates waves, like a pebble thrown into a pond, ripples across the ocean surface, piling up into powerful towers of water as it reaches shore.The tsunami launched by the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the eastern shores of Japan was triggered at a site called a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate slowly pushes beneath another.

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