Why do tsunamis (20~ft) cause more damage and flooding than the waves that surfers surf (world record 86ft)?
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A wave is just a wave. Even large ones only contain so much water. They’re caused when wind blows the water, causing part of it to rise up and then crash back down onto the surface.
A tsunami isn’t caused by wind, they’re usually caused by earthquakes. Whereas wind pushes a little water along the surface, something that causes a tsunami pushes a *lot* of water along under the surface. As the ocean floor rises up to become land, that same volume of water is pushed up and out, so tsunamis can become quite large. The world record is over 1,700 feet high. In either case, even small tsunamis tend to have a *lot* more water in them then even very large waves, and they have the momentum to keep going inland that waves tend not to have.
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