B Barber
Science Coordinator

Science

"Tsunami Science Show" (Senior)
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Program: St Francis Xavier.

Presentation:

Equipment:

• Earth plate movement apparatus.
• Plasticine - 2 colours, 2 blocks of wood.
• bucket of water, blocks, twigs, etc.
• plastic bottle, water and cap; object?
• Computer or A3 paper.
• bucket of water, straws; stones (different sizes).
• basin of sand or soil; objects to simulate a city - hills and tall buildings, cars, trees and people.
• paper, pen, spring, weight and spring.
• very large beaker; conical flask, twin holled rubber stopper,hot and cold water, food dye.

Demonstrations:

Experiment	Method	Equipment	Concepts
How are mountains formed?	Using layers of plasticine shoe compression of plates, the formation of different rock structures, hills and mountains.	Plasticine - 2 colours, 2 blocks of wood.	Creation of hills and valleys.
How do Earthquakes result?	Demonstrate the plate tectonics equipment for showing how hills and mountains form. Construction: Make this out of cardboard. You can make it two dimensional (ie. flat and not as big cardboard blocks). Ask your teacher for help. To use push the two outside blocks in towards each other to demonstrate an earthquake.	Earth plate movement apparatus (left).	Demonstrate the movement of tectonic plates.
Floods!	Go outside and in the dirt create a river channel and some structures nearby: eg. twigs for trees, blocks for houses etc. Observe the effect of flooding using water. Try to work out ways to prevent flooding in your little world.	bucket of water, blocks, twigs, etc.	Demonstrate the effects of flooding.
Tornadoes	Demonstrating tornadoes using water in a plastic bottle.	2 plastic bottle, water and joiner.	Place the 2 bottles together with 2/3 full of water joined by joiner and watch the effect of wind making objects move.
Newspaper headlines!	Create a newspaper headlines with a fictitious news report based upon the ways in which the disaster takes it natural form. See below ...	Computer or A3 paper	Researching the nature of a particular natural disaster to prepare a newspaper headline.
Tidal waves	Blow with straws across the surface of a icecream container of water and note the water currents. Drop an object in the centre and observe the waves. Drop a larger object in and watch the waves.	bucket of water, straws; stones (different sizes).	What do you notice about the currents of water? Do they spread outwards? Do larger objects or breathes cause bigger waves?
Earthquakes!	Place objects to simulate a city in a basin of sand or soil. Make hills and tall buildings, cars, trees and people. Place it all on a table and gently shake it. Shake it harder now.	basin of sand or soil; objects to simulate a city - hills and tall buildings, cars, trees and people.	What happens to the city when an earthquake strikes? When you shake harder is there any further damage?
Seismograph	Hand a spring the bottom of a table down to a heavy weight. Stick a pen to the base of the weight and hold a piece of paper to it. Bang the table.	paper, pen, spring, weight and spring.	Demonstrating a seismograph - see below.
Volcanic Cloud	Place a conical flask with a twin hole rubber stopper in the top. Fill it with hot water coloured with food dye. Submerge it under water within a large clear beaker.	very large beaker; conical flask, twin holled rubber stopper,hot and cold water, food dye.	Demonstrate the creation of volcano cloud formations - see below ...
Lightning	Using the Van der Graaf generator to create static electricity.	Van der Graaf generator.	A belt charging up inside releases the excess static electricity and places it on the dome. The discharging bulb allows it to be earthed (all the electricity then goes into the earth).

Tsunami Theory:

Water starts to drain away from the shore and soon hundreds of metres of mud is exposed. Tsunamis or tidal waves are probably the least understood natural phenomenon associated with movements of the Earth's crust. The word "tsunami" is Japanese, meaning "harbour waves". This is as misleading as "tidal waves", as tsunamis don't occur in harbours nor are in any way associated with tides.

The occurrence of tsunamis

Tsunamis mainly occur when underwater earthquakes create vertical movement in the ocean floor. Tsunamis can also be caused by any event which causes movement in the water. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, the impact of asteroids and meteors all can create tsunamis.

As the bulge of water created by the initial disturbance settles back down, a series of waves can be created travelling at speeds of over 770km/hr. In the deep ocean, tsunamis may pass unnoticed under ships as their height is usually less than a metre. It is when they reach shallow water that their energy is fully released.

Upon reaching the shoreline, the energy of the tsunami can create a series of high waves, crashing down on the shore destroying all in its path. A tsunami of this magnitude, created by an earthquake in Alaska, sent waves across the Pacific to inundate parts of coastal Japan and Hawaii, washing large boats hundreds of metres inland.

Not all tsunami waves break as they hit land, they simply surge ashore, flooding low-lying areas and rebounding off cliffs and high land, causing more damage as they move back out to sea. Large tsunamis can reverberate around an ocean for days as occurred in 1960, when an off-shore earthquake near Chile sent tsunami waves in all directions across the Pacific Ocean, causing a 6m tsunami in Japan 22 hours later. The tsunami continued to criss-cross the Pacific for days, causing damage whenever it struck land.

One of the most recent and widely publicised tsunami was the one that hit Sissino, Papua New Guinea in July 1998. This tsunami generated by a undersea volcanic eruption caused the deaths of many villagers and destruction of their villages.

Fortunately, tsunami of this size are rare. Much more common are those of the type which formed on that evening in Rabaul. A small wave, maybe 1m high, swept back across the mudflats coming to a halt on the sea wall and beaches. Just another day in paradise!

Tsunamis in Australia

Tsunamis are much rarer in Australia. They are not unknown though. On June 3, 1994, a killer tsunami forced its way along the Indian Ocean coastline of Java, Indonesia, killing 200 people, and continued on to hit the Australian coastline at Broome, King Bay, Onslow and Carnarvon, Western Australia. The tsunami reached 3 - 4 meters high. In southern New South Wales, tsunamis are believed to have tossed rocks weighing up to 90 tonnes on to cliffs 30 metres high. Some scientists have suggested that tsunamis of this magnitude have occurred as regularly as once every 200 years along the New South Wales coastline, although none have been experienced in the past 200 plus years of European settlement!

In Australia, tsunami models predict that the north-west coast of Western Australia is most susceptible to tsunamis. Parts of the east coast thought to be vulnerable include the south and central coasts of New South Wales. In Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef may not provide protection from tsunamis. Scientists have found evidence of tsunamis having come through gaps in the reef depositing huge coral boulders on shore.