My bet is that there won’t be a BIG ONE: there will be no tsunami on December 21, 2012. That said, there may be many more of the very serious nature, like we have seen recently, that cause a great deal of pain and suffering. With more and more of the population living on the coasts, the odds are increasing that a BIG ONE could happen!

The term tsunami comes from the Japanese and means “Big wave in the port”. The term was coined by fishermen who returned to their ports in the evening after their villages and cities had been devastated by a giant wave although they had not seen any waves on the open sea.

And we had three this week alone.

Tsunamis arise from the sudden displacement of gigantic water masses due to earthquakes on the sea bed, volcanic eruption above and under water, landslides or meteorite impacts. About 86 % of all Tsunamis result from so-called seaquakes. In order for a tsunami caused by a seaquakes to occur, three things have to be happen, the earthquake must measure at least 7,0 on the Richter scale. Only from this intensity upwards is there enough energy released to rapidly displace enough water to create the tsunami.

In the last ten years there have been three major tsunamis taking 700, 17,000, and 30,000+ lives!

The earth is going through some sort of metamorphosis but no one seems to be able to pin point the exact cause. What is troublesome though is the probable impact that a decreased magnetic field along with an increased solar maximum might do come 2012. And for those living on the coast, there’s little time to make it to high ground since the wave can travel at speeds of 500+ miles an hour.

But then, you could get hit by a meteorite as well. What’s the odds?