The first tsunami created in the lab

According to The Guardian, at the Research Center for Hydraulic Research in Wallingford, Britain, scientists have for the first time created artificial tsunamis.

According to scientists, artificial tsunami experiments will help better forecast disastrous tsunamis and improve coastal protection, evacuate people, and protect the environment.

Since 2004, five major tsunamis have claimed no fewer than 300,000 lives worldwide. Humans are increasingly building coastal cities and the risk of tsunamis has increased several times. Meanwhile, scientists still lack data to optimize the design of the building as well as the breakwaters.

Their research will benefit engineers when designing homes, dams that can withstand the devastation of the tsunami.

Normally, when disaster strikes, all necessary scientific equipment collecting the information is destroyed. That is why British scientists decided to create a tsunami in a special tank 70 meters long. Wave-generating equipment has the ability to produce artificial waves like ocean tides at a ratio of 1:50. Waves appear when a powerful pump draws a large amount of water and then rinses back into the tank, producing high waves that hit the tank wall like the 2004 tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean and in 2011. Japanese shore.

Professor Tiziana Rossetto of the University of London, who led the project, said that the Wallingford Hydraulic Research Center was the only scientific unit that created the tsunami to help design tsunami-resistant coastlines. When he arrived in Sri Lanka and Thailand, where he suffered a tsunami in 2004, he found that some of the beachfront buildings were intact and the buildings were completely destroyed. The goal of the scientists is to find the cause behind the phenomenon.

Unlike the previous tests, when turning the pump or throwing concrete blocks into the water only produces short waves that can not send waves away; This time the gas pumps generate long waves.

British scientists have paid special attention to modeling less-studied situations when waves destroy buildings. Researcher David McGovern, who is also a participant in the project, shared that their research will help engineers design houses, dams, and nuclear power plants. can withstand the devastation of the tsunami as well as help to evacuate people in the event of a disaster.