Why is it called a tsunami?

Answer 1

It is a Japanese word for "harbor wave." Tsunami in Japanese is written with the symbol for wave and for harbor: "harbor" (tsu, 津) and "wave" (nami, 波). The word tsunami (pronounced su-nah'-me) has been used long enough that it has been adopted into most languages rather than being translated.

The name comes from the fact that fishermen and sailors at sea would not notice anything unusual, but would return to port to find their towns devastated. The tsunami waves can pass right under the boats at sea totally unnoticed. Due to this, they were believed to have originated in the harbors since they did not become visible until they reached the shallower waters in the harbor where they gained their enormous heights.

The Japanese word does not have a plural form and tsunami is used both for singular and plural in English in many locations. However, it has become accepted, over time, to say "tsunamis" for the plural in English.

Many early geological, geographical, and oceanographic texts refer to tsunami as "seismic sea waves."

They are sometimes mistakenly called "tidal waves," but tsunami have no relationship to the tides other than looking similar but smaller and generating some similar effects on land with flooding and devastation.

Tsunami are also sometimes incorrectly called "storm surges", which are also different wave phenomena. Tsunami have no relationship to weather. They are not caused by storms, cyclones, hurricanes, or high winds.

They are also different than "rogue waves" which are single huge waves. Tsunami are a series of waves that radiate out from the source, like ripples in a pond from a stone.

Answer 2

The word "tsunami" is of Japanese origin, composed of two characters: "tsu" meaning harbor and "nami" meaning wave. Tsunamis are often generated by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, and the term reflects their connection to the sea and their massive, destructive wave nature.

Answer 3

"Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a nonseismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact"

Ref:http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/physics/meaning.html

Answer 4

A tsunami is a series of water waves that is caused when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into "harbor wave."

Answer 5

it is word of Japan, in the japan big wave to called tsunami

Answer 6

The term tsunami comes from the Japanese, meaning "harbor" (tsu, æ´¥) and "wave" (nami, æ³¢)

Answer 7

because it is the Japanese name for tsunami.

Answer 8

no