As the ocean floor rises near a landmass, it pushes the wave higher. But much depends on how sharpl..

the ocean bottom changes and from which direction the wave approaches. This satellite image of the island of Sri Lank a and the Indian Ocean around it was tak en on December 26, 2004. The camera, part of an instrument called MISR, points forward at an angle, so catches shadows and reflections that cameras look ing straight down do not see. The people in south Asia had no warning of the next disaster rushing toward them the morning of December 26, 2004. One of the strongest earthquakes in the past 100 y ears had just destroyed villages on the island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean, leavin g many people injured. But the worst was yet to come..and very soon. For the earthquake had occurred beneath the ocean, thrusting the ocean floor upward nearly 60 feet. The sudden release of energy into the ocean created a tsunami (pronounced su-NAM-ee) event. .a series of huge waves. The waves rushed outward from the center of the earthquake , traveling around 400 miles per hour. Anything in the path of these giant surges of water, such as islands or coastlines, would soon be under water. The people had already felt the earthquake, so why didn't they know the water wa s coming? Energy from earthquakes travels through the Earth very quickly, so scientists thousands of miles away knew there had been a severe earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Why didn't they know it would create a tsunami? Why didn't they warn people close to the coastlines to get to higher ground as quickly as possible? In Sumatra, near the center of the earthquake, people would not have had time to get out of the way even if they had been warned. But the tsunami took over two hours to reach the island of Sri Lanka 1000 miles away, and still it killed 30,000 people! It is important, though, to understand just how the tsunami will behave when it gets near Ts..nami! (/review/tsunami/DART_05.swf) Click to pla.. animation. (/review/tsunami/DART_05.swf) In the Pacific Ocean, a tsunami warning s..stem has been installed. 1. Sensors on the ocean floor and buo..s on the ocean surface detect an earthquake and a resulting tsunami. 2. Transmitters on the buoys send warning signals to satellites

orbiting overhead. 3. The satellites relay the warning to ground stations. 4. At the ground stations, scientists can quickly feed the data into a computer and calculate when and where a tsunami might hit and how high the waves might be when they reach the coastline where people live. 5. Then a message or signal can be sent warning people to evacuate to high ground. This animation[courtesy of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program] shows how it works, using one of the GOES satellites operated by NOAA. (http://www.nasa.gov) (/) Getting the right angle on the stor..

the coastline. As the ocean floor rises near a landmass, it pushes the wave high er. But much depends on how sharply the ocean bottom changes and from which direction th e wave approaches. Scientists would like to know more about how actual waves react . The MISR (short for Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) instrument on the Te. ...a satellite happened to be orbiting and tak ing images over Sri Lank a just a few hours after the first tsunami wave hit. Huge waves continued to arrive for man.. hours afterward, so the ocean surface was still rock ing and rolling. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 8.9 Earthquak e under the ocean near Japan caused a huge tsunami to hit the coast. These two images from MISR show the coastline bef ore (left) and after (right) the severe flooding from the tsunami. In these pictures , vegetation appears red and water appears blue. MISR has nine came..a.. all pointed at diffe..en.. angle... So the exact same sp ot is photographed from nine different angles as the satellite passes overhead. The im age at the top of this page was taken with the camera that points forward at 46... The image caught the sunlight reflecting off the pattern of ripples as the waves bent arou nd the southern tip of the island. These ripples are not seen in satellite images looki ng straight down at the surface. Scientists do not yet understand what causes this pattern o f ripples. They will use computers to help them find out how the depth of the ocean floor a ffects the

Thi.. ..e..ie.. of MISR pic......e.. ..a.. ..ak en o..e.. ..i.. min....e.. on Decembe.. 26, 2004. I.. ..ho.... ......nami ..a..e.. b..eak ing on ..he ..o....hea.... coa....line of India. wave patterns on the surface of the ocean. Images such as this one from MISR wil l help. Images such as these from MISR will help scientists understand how tsunamis interact with islands and coastlines. This information will help in developing the computer programs, called model.., that will help p..edic.. where, when, and how severel.. a tsunami will hit. That wa.., scientists and government officials can warn people in time to save man.. lives. Last Updated: October 27th, 2011 Abo.... U.. (/abo....-....) P..i..ac.. Polic.. (/p..i..ac..) Mi....ion Inde.. (/mi....ion..) NASA Official: Ruth Netting Webmaster: (h....p://...........a.go../) Diane Fisher Con..ac.. ..he SpacePlace (mail..o:info@..paceplace.na..a.go..)