From paradise to devastation: Australian journalist Kimina Lyall tells the extraordinary story of surviving the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand.

Discusses the cause of tsunamis, the destruction they cause, and what is being done to help people be safe.

A Silent Tsunami is a unique combination of memoir and medicine – Rowan forensically examines the development of her mother's illness and explores dementia in a frank but illuminating, lyrical and moving way. 'By turns, warm, reflective, angry, but always moving... the perfect balance between scientific context and the mother-daughter narrative' Professor Craig Ritchie, University of St Andrews 'Anthea captures so eloquently the tug of war between a daughter and her mother "who is being erased"' Manni Coe, author of the bestselling brother. do. you. love. me. Anthea Rowan writes about her mother's struggles of living with Dementia, while interpreting the science that surrounds this devestating illness. Grounded in personal observation, she casts an unflinching eye on the realities of living with a mother who has forgotten her daughter and a determination that her children will not face the same. There is hope here, too. As a portratyal of the relationships we share with our mothers, an examinaion of their influences on us, as well as asking questions about how illness impacts lives, A Silent Tsunami is a powerful story of family, life, love and loss.

This volume, derived from the 1999 International Tsunami Symposium, presents a unique look at the state of tsunami research at the end of the 20th century. It displays recent progress both in data recovery and reconstructions of historical tsunamis and in detail examination of recent disasters. It shows the tsunami community using both traditional methods of data gathering - searching archives and attempting to simulate past events - and integrating modern technologies - side-scan sonar, GPS, global communications, supercomputers - in the quest to understand tsunamis and improve mankind's ability to mitigate the disastrous consequences of these unpredictable and unstoppable events. It chronicles recent advances in mitigation efforts while illuminating the continuing need for increased efforts. The papers range from descriptive texts for the non-specialists to fairly technical discussions for those familiar with tsunami research. Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students involved in natural hazards research, physical oceanography, seismology, environmental impact assessment and risk assessment.

This book is a collection of contribution from experts involved in tsunami study for the purpose of covering its different aspects from generation to warning system to be applied in tsunami risk reduction. The presented chapters have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. The content of the book consists of information on tsunami propagation from the open sea to the coast and coastal tsunami warning using deployed HF radar systems in different parts of North America and Japan. In this book, tsunami propagation, preliminary methods for evaluating the suitability of radar sites for tsunami detection using simulated tsunami velocities and factors affecting tsunami detectability are discussed and methods for reducing the false alarms are described. It further covers multi-scale meteorological systems resulted in meteo-tsunami and tsunami generation due to a landslide or a submarine volcanic eruption, where few case studies have been presented. The occurrence and characteristics of tsunami in Sweden, using paleo-tsunami events from different parts of the Scandinavia and finally challenges and opportunities for reducing losses to fast-arriving tsunamis in remote villages along Pakistan coast, with few examples are also discussed.

Submarine earthquakes, submarine slides and impacts may set large water volumes in motion characterized by very long wavelengths and a very high speed of lateral displacement, when reaching shallower water the wave breaks in over land - often with disastrous effects. This natural phenomenon is known as a tsunami event. By December 26, 2004, an event in the Indian Ocean, this word suddenly became known to the public. The effects were indeed disastrous and 227,898 people were killed. Tsunami events are a natural part of the Earth's geophysical system. There have been numerous events in the past and they will continue to be a threat to humanity; even more so today, when the coastal zone is occupied by so much more human activity and many more people. Therefore, tsunamis pose a very serious threat to humanity. The only way for us to face this threat is by increased knowledge so that we can meet future events by efficient warning systems and aid organizations. This book offers extensive and new information on tsunamis; their origin, history, effects, monitoring, hazards assessment and proposed handling with respect to precaution. Only through knowledge do we know how to behave in a wise manner. This book should be a well of tsunami knowledge for a long time, we hope.