Student and teacher friendly ebook

You will find the Earthquakes and Tsunamis ebook is filled with interesting information about earthquakes and tsunamis. It is designed for all ages of students. If you are teaching a group with multiple ages and reading ability this is the book for you.

You can pair your students up and have them work together as they ead the information in this book. Your students will learn how earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions trigger tsunamis. These great waves can travel as fast as a jet airplane and can be over 100 feet (30 m) high when they come ashore.

Sample chapters

• Earthquake Waves
• Ring of Fire
• Historic Earthquakes and Tsunamis
• Preparing for Emergencies

Why it is important to know signs of danger

Millions of people live near the oceans. During the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake Tilly Smith was on vacation at a beach resort in Thailand. She was 10 years old and had been studying about tsunamis in geography class two weeks before.

Tilly recognized the signs of receding water and frothing bubbles on the surface of the sea. She warned her parents. Her parents warned others on the beach and the hotel staff. Everyone fled to higher ground just before the tsunami came ashore. Her warning saved at least 100 lives that day. 

Great earthquakes trigger tsunamis

1. Tsunamis are generated during great earthquakes by the seafloor either rising or falling along a fault line deep in the ocean.
2. Local landslides and submarine landslides can trigger tsunamis. The highest tsunami ever recorded was caused by a local landslide at Lituya Bay, Alaska.
3. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa generated tsunamis that killed 36,000 people in nearby islands.

This is just some of the fascinating information your students will learn about in this book. 

Preparing for emergencies

We all live in areas where there are natural hazards. Some people live where tornadoes occur. Other people live where hurricanes batter the land. Wildfires sweep across the land in dry summers. Earthquakes can occur anywhere on Earth.

A NOAA scientist was being interviewed about being prepared for emergencies. He showed a backpack he always carried in the trunk of his car. He kept the backpack in his car in case of an emergency when he was not at home.

Your students can brainstorm about the best way to be prepared where you live. There can read about preparing for an emergency in this book. You can have them make their own plans for where they live and what they would need to do in case of an emergency.