European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Artist s drawing shows a 30-loot High tsunami or sea wave As it Tryck Seward Alaska in 1364. Fearsome tsunami wave trains by Kim Heacox National geographic a tsunami a fearsome Ocean wave spawned by an earthquake or a volcanic eruption May take shape As Lillic More Ihan a Ghoston the open sea. Importe pliable from a ship of from the air. It can Speed along at goo Miles an hour its peaks and troughs Only inches deep and 10q Miles apart. Bui the docile ghost May become a destructive monster when in enters shallow water m May slow Down compress Asil gains strength Rise 100 feet or More and smash the Shore with devastating Force. At least one tsunami has been recorded every year Seco 1800. But major ones have occurred on the average of Only once a decade. The eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia took 36,000 lives in 1883, most of them not in the actual volcanic Bias i by in the tsunami that immediately followed the next Day the same , by Ihen much smaller swept through the English Channel to the West and into san Francisco Bay to the East. A tsunami is usually not a single wave but a series called a wave  nor is a tsunami a tidal wave it has nothing to do with tides. Like Ripples in a Pond it radiates out in concentric rings from an epicentre of an oceanic earthquake or Volcano travelling up to 12,000 Miles without dissipating. Thus a seismic wave generated off the coast of Chile could strike China 24 hours later. Some tsunamis have rebounded of continents sloshing Back and Forth across the Pacific Ocean for a week. Erma Bombeck tsunamis have ravaged Hawaii Japan South America and Olhorn lands of the Pacific rim the highest one Over recorded 210 Leet washed Over the Southern lip o Russia s Kamchatka Peninsula a 1937 in what was described As a Black Wall of water depositing debris in he in coops sophisticated underwater electronics make detection of tsunamis easier now than in he past in tha Small Alaska Lown Al Palmer just North of Anchorage Tom Sckolowski works Al it full time. Solowski the geophysicist in charge of the Alaska tsunami warning Center watches seismic Needles that measure murmurs in the Earth s heart. When a murmur becomes a heart Siack and she Needles swing Errah Cally Sokotowski lakes immediate action. Nearly so percent of Alaska s More than 500.000 residents live beside 1he sea a potentially catastrophic tsunami is a major threat to them. Take the afternoon of May 7. 1986, when an  Muir Tujing a feign 7.7 Jtj the Richter Avalo locked the isolated Aleutian islands of Alaska minutes later graphs at the Center in Palmer registered six foot sea swells on tidal gauges near the quake s epicentre. Sokolowski and his colleagues scanned the data and instantly issued a tsunami warning for the coasts of Alaska British Columbia Washington Oregon and California. He notified the Pacific tsunami Center in Hawaii which in turn relayed the warning to censers in Asia. In a Well coordinated multinational response sirens in vulnerable places wailed and urgent radio announcement were made ships Tell ports and sailed for the open sea. National guard units Wen on Alert. Thousands of people headed for High ground within an hour the entire Northern Pacific rim was braced for a big wave. Bui nol Fig happened the Waves that arrived in Hawaii were no bigger than i Host on a by Pica surfing Day. That s the mystery of tsunamis Sokolowski says we Don t know How much of an earthquake s Energy is transferred from the sea Bottom Inlo the water column. One oceanic earthquake migh rigger a huge tsunami while another ring he frigg of nothing Al All. And a Large wave that hits one Beach might Loave another Beach Down the Shore completely untouched. They re unpredictable cult cars but Al least we be managed to develop an effective warning system that can save a lot of  Sokolowski who has issued Only four warnings in 11 years has no worries about creating a boy who Ned Wolf Complex. The warnings Are be ious and when they come people move ii we err it s Best so be on the Side of  he says. At least the people will be alive to complain " Sokotowski and his counterparts around the would Are working to solve the Myslene Sof this remarkable Slit intimidating natural phenomenon. As a result of their Elloris. The tsunami toll is now measured mostly in property destroyed not lives lost. No tsunami survivor has yet surpassed the tale told by an ame Ucan sea Caplain . Billings. His guns Ftp the Wateree was Al Anchor Oil Arica Chile. Married a Man who did not possess the same astigmatism As i i am now at the stage where i ask whal Arn i Ealing and he says i Mol sure did you Lake your Napkin out of the ring1 yes " then it s asparagus Al 9 o clock " the other night i distinguished something moving in the room and said How Nice of you to drop by " my husband mi3 dryly. Who Are you talking to i though someone just came into the room " a plane just went Over the House and cast a Shadow he said somehow i Linci no Comfort in the jct Cru i be beat the Iris ii under my arms and thai when i be run out of Gas me curl is Sliu holding i Only know it s going to get worse Page 16 the stars and stripes saturday december 12. 1987