Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2004

Tsunami

TSUNAMI TSUNAMI That was a word, tucked unobtrusively inside the dictionary (on page 1784 of the Chambers Dictionary, to be precise), and none of us even dreamt that it existed. Within a short time, it has become the most repeated and most dreaded word in English. TSUNAMI - Tsu means harbour, nami means wave. In Japanese. The Chambers Dictionary defines it as “ a very swiftly traveling sea wave that attains great height, caused by an undersea earthquake or similar disturbance.” What havoc it has created along the TN eastern coast besides others seacoasts in South India, and other South Asian countries. The death toll is over 24000; in TN alone it would cross 4000, Andaman & Nicobar another 4000+. One cannot even visualize the devastation, destruction, and death caused by this demon. Enormous. Numbing. Could it have been predicted? Could it have been warded off? The answer to both would be NO. However, the earthquake of the order of 8.5 could have been monitored, tsunamic conditions