World Tsunami Awareness Day is celebrated every year on November 5 across the world to raise awareness about how to lower risks that are associated with tsunamis and improve community readiness. The main aim of this international day is to inform people about the risks of tsunamis and how to save or protect assets or properties during tsunamis in the future.

The term ‘’Tsunami’’ is a Japanese word, which means ‘’harbor wave’’ and is also called as Tidal wave in English language. Tsunamis are natural disasters or series of waves in a water body including the sea and ocean which are caused by the earthquake in an ocean. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and several other underwater explosions including landslides, glacier calving, and many more disturbances above or below water in the sea and ocean generate a tsunami.  The gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun generates wind or tides that produce ocean waves, which is responsible for a tsunami. Tsunamis are huge waves that are mainly caused by volcanic eruptions or earthquakes in or under the sea or ocean. Tsunamis do not intensely increase in height but they build up to higher and higher heights when the depth of the ocean reduces.

The speed of tsunami waves depends on the depth of the ocean rather than the distance from the source of the wave. Tsunamis are predicted and measured by several techniques including tide gauges, satellite imagery, and seismographs. Tidal gauges help in measuring the height of the waves when they approach or reach the coast while seismographs are used in detecting the earthquakes that may be responsible for generating tsunamis and satellite imagery is used to monitor or observe the progress of a tsunami in the ocean and also predicting its arrival time at the cost thus this important information may help in lowering the number of deaths in those cities which are close to the sea and the ocean.

This international day provides an opportunity to share ideas about how to reduce the risks of life and properties across the world. The main aim of this international day is to inform every individual about the risks of tsunamis and make a plan to lower the effects or impacts of assets or lives in any natural disaster.