• Question: How are volcanos, earthquakes, and tsunamis linked?

    Asked by lisaloo to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      They’re all natural events that we don’t entirely understand and can’t quite predict. They’re all also possibly caused by extremely powerful waves, similar to sound waves, but much much stronger. However, I’m an expert in precisely none of these things so here’s a video that might help (it’s 45 minutes long so I hope you really want to know):

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS8lpsNM0Gs

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      This is a research question a lot of scientists are working on right now – the problem is it is really really really complicated!
      For instance, if a volcano erupts and lets huge amounts of material into the sea all in one go it can push water into a tsunami. Also, when an earthquake moves the sea floor it pushes a lot of water around – try moving your leg up and down really quickly in the pool or bath and see what I mean! This makes tsunamis too. Trying to predict volcanoes and earthquakes is really tough, and trying to work out if they will cause a tsunami is another problem on top of that!

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