World Tsunami Awareness Day: 5 November

World Tsunami Awareness Day is commemorated annually on 5 November. Although tsunamis are rare, they are the world’s deadliest natural disaster. In the past 100 years, more than 260,000 people have died in 58 different tsunamis, which is an average of 4,600 deaths per event. This figure surpasses any other natural disaster.

In tsunami-prone locations, many countries have early warning systems and international cooperation in the communication of disasters. As a result, the United Nations General Assembly declared 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day, with the first annual day to be held this year - in 2016.

Even though they are often called giant tidal waves, they are not caused by tides, and they are not waves – they are a series of rising waters that come from the sea, minutes or hours apart. They impact coastal areas.

Tsunami is the Japanese word for ‘harbour wave.’ Tsunamis can be caused by ocean-based earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions, landslides, and glacial slidings. Tsunamis are not created naturally like tides, because they are caused by the displacement of water that moves towards land.

Global events will include workshops, disaster risk reduction campaigns, practice evacuation drills, and seminars.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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