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The tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 was from a similarly sized quake to the one in 2004, but the resulting wave towered 40.5 metres (133 feet) into the air. That's a wave roughly the same height as 17 adults standing on top of each other – and it's the deadliest tsunami in history – but in height terms, it's relatively small compared with some of the others our planet has seen.
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Take the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which reached heights of 30 metres (or 98 feet), generated by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake that produced a greater force than all the explosives used in World War II combined – including the nuclear bombs. The scariest parts of the video are the real-life examples of tsunami heights. The strength of the blast and the distance the water has to travel affects the overall size of the tsunami, sometimes known as a seismic sea wave. What's happening in a tsunami is a principle called water displacement, where some other force or matter takes up the room the water was peacefully occupying and sends it racing off in different directions. There are two main causes of tsunamis: underwater explosions (like earthquakes or eruptions) and large volumes of material hitting the water (like meteorites or landslides).
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And it's way bigger than we ever imagined – in some instances capable of creating waves that tower above the biggest buildings humankind has made. In the video above, RealLifeLore looks at the science behind tsunamis and the question of just how massive they can actually become.