Talk:Tsunami

Tsunami in Mexico in 1932

Different sources talk about a Tsunami in Cuyutlán town in Mexico, on June 22, 1932. I listed this Tsunami, as "Possible Tsunami" in the section of North America and Caribbean Tsunami, refering a news that also refers newspapers from 1932 and interviews. EliminatorJR eliminated this addition, but considering that it was written under "Possible Tsunami" section, and sourced, it should be kept.

Missing name

Under Tsunami#Causes, third paragraph:

In the 1950s it was discovered by that larger tsunami than previously believed

Who discovered this?

Geologists working for oil companies and the USGS!

GA reassessment

Tsunami

Article (edit | history) • Article talk (edit | history) • Watch • Watch article reassessment page • GAN review not found

Result: Delist per consensus below. There are numerous statements which need citation per the criteria. Geometry guy 10:13, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

This article does not appear to meet the GA criteria. I'm not familiar with this process, so I'm bringing it here rather than boldly delisting (which I considered). The article is not well written and is woefully undercited. Calliopejen1 (talk) 03:53, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

• Comment. The article will benefit from in-line citations. The prose needs to be sharpened in places. Majoreditor (talk) 18:28, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
• Delist. Needs significant improvement in references. Lacking citations in many places where statistics and opinions are given. References need to be properly formatted, with titles, publishers and access dates at the very least. What makes "abelard.org" (the first bullet point in the References section) reliable? The See also and especially the External links sections could use a trim. There are a couple of dead external links, see here. The bold formatting in the Terminology section should be removed. Has had a disputed statement tag in place since November 2008. Dana boomer (talk) 13:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• Delist A quick look at the reference column says that the article has far too few in-line citations for its size; the frequent ^{[citation needed]} are not a good sign. The external links section needs to be about 1/2 its current size. The grammar and style of the article could be made clearer in some instances. ♪Tempo di Valse ♪ 20:03, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
• Delist Needs to be more comprehensive, and the citation is woeful. ResMar 14:43, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
• Delist. Layout and sources are not GA-quality. — Levi van Tine (t – c) 07:57, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't make sense

If the first part of a tsunami to reach land is a trough—called a drawback—rather than a wave crest

And the sentence abruptly ends. Any "if" should have some "then" to make sense. Or at least, this sentence doesn't make sense without a then. It says if, so what is the consequence of the "if" being fulfilled? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.176.6.56 (talk) 19:53, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

It was a change made a few months ago, but I can't see what was intended, so I've changed it back - thanks for spotting that. Mikenorton (talk) 20:19, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Name

A tsunami is not "also called a tsunami wave train". This falsehood has been in the article for months. That phrase may have been used somewhere; that does not make it an additional name for the phenomenon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.104.181.183 (talk) 15:08, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

And a month later it's still there. Anyone here give a shit about accuracy? 201.214.175.96 (talk) 05:09, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

The term is used, although it's not that common, to express the fact that tsunami waves are not solitary but come in groups. It needs rewording because it's not a direct equivalent in the way that 'Seismic sea wave' is. I'll see what I can come up with. Mikenorton (talk) 07:59, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

The term might be used but it's absolutely not right to use it in the way it's used in this article. It would be like saying "hurricane, also called hurricane winds". In fact, "hurricane winds" compared to "hurricane" appears to be thirteen times more common in the scientific literature than "tsunami wave train" compared to "tsunami" (4800 / 410,000 / 166 / 191,000 results respectively from google scholar).

Why is this article protected anyway? It seems to have been locked for months. 200.120.206.103 (talk) 00:01, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

There was a lot of vandalism just over a year ago and it's been semi-protected since then - perhaps raise it with the admin who protected it, User:Dabomb87. Mikenorton (talk) 00:10, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

I'm having trouble coming up with a new version of the lede, which mentions the "tsunami wave train" but doesn't imply that it's a direct synonym. Perhaps you could propose a revised wording here, I'm getting too tired to think. Mikenorton (talk) 00:19, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Sure, here's what I would propose as a revised lead. I wouldn't be inclined to include the tsunami wave train wording at all, as it's so seldom used, but if you prefer it, this version has it. This includes a lot of the text already present but in what seems to me a more logical order and better summarising the contents of the article. The three paragraphs roughly cover the basic definition and cause; observed characteristics and human impact; and scientific studies.

What do you reckon? 200.120.206.103 (talk) 03:21, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

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A tsunami (plural: tsunamis or tsunami; from Japanese: 津波, lit. "harbor wave"; English pronunciation: /suːˈnɑːmi/ soo-NAH-mee or /tsuːˈnɑːmi/ tsoo-NAH-mee) is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to as tidal waves. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "wave train". Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in 426 B.C. that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of a tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.

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Thanks, that looks better to me. You've missed out anything on meteotsunamis, but the doesn't belong in the lede as it isn't in the body of the article. Need to find another place for it, perhaps its own section. I'll wait a few days for any other views then make the necessary changes if there are no substantial objections. Mikenorton (talk) 14:20, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I was going to trim it to a line at the end but then thought it's not really necessary in the lead. It's mentioned in the "see also" section, and perhaps could be mentioned in "generation mechanisms"? 200.120.206.103 (talk) 15:11, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Any chance of making the changes, then? Thanks. 190.44.140.37 (talk) 07:10, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the nudge, I've changed the lead as discussed, moving the meteotsunami bit to its own section and that's now sourced. Mikenorton (talk) 09:58, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Great - thanks. 190.44.140.37 (talk) 11:06, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

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It should be sayed that in Spanish there is the word "maremoto" that means tsunami. It comes from latín "mare" (sea) and "motus" (movement). This word is used in the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) dictionary insteads of tsunami as the correct way to call this waves in Spanish. --77.209.225.210 (talk) 23:24, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 30 December 2011

Section: Warnings and predictions

In the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami drawback was not reported on the African coast or any other eastern //[THIS SHOULD BE WESTERN] coasts it reached. This was because the wave moved downwards on the eastern side of the fault line and upwards on the western side. The western pulse hit coastal Africa and other western areas. 203.109.210.46 (talk) 09:02, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

I changed 'eastern' to east-facing', which I think was the intent of the text. The whole thing should probably be rewritten to make it clearer. Mikenorton (talk) 11:26, 30 December 2011 (UTC)