IELTS Reading: Tsunami
Cơn sóng thần khởi phát từ dưới đáy biển sâu; khi còn ngoài xa khơi, chiều cao sóng khá nhỏ nhưng chiều dài của cơn sóng lên đến hàng trăm kilômét. Vì vậy khi ở xa bờ chúng ta khó nhận diện ra nó, mà chỉ cảm nhận là một cơn sóng cồn trải dài. Cùng đọc bài Reading về Sóng thần này nào. ...
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions(including detonations of underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.
Tsunami waves do not resemble normal sea waves, because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide, and for this reason they are often referred to as tidal waves. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called “wave train”. Wave heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous and they can affect entire ocean basins; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
The Greek historian Thucydides suggested in 426 BC that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of a tsunami’s nature remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include trying to determine why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; trying to accurately forecast the passage of tsunamis across the oceans; and also to forecast how tsunami waves would interact with specific shorelines.
Vocabulary:
wave: sóng
=> a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake, in the form of a moving ridge or swell.
displacement: sự dịch chuyển
=> the state of being displaced or the amount or degree to whichsomething is displaced.
a large volume: âm lượng lớn
=> big the level of sound produced by a television, radio, etc
eruption: phun trào
=> to happen suddenly or violently
disturbance: rối loạn
=> something that interrupts what you are doing, especially something loud or annoying
resemble: giống
=> to look like or be like someone or something
forecast:dự báo
=> a report saying what is likely to happen in the future
shorelines: bờ biển
=> the edge of a sea, lake, or wide river
