Tsunamis Can Produce Enough Power to Run Major Cities or Even Countries for Days
There have been a few extremely damaging tsunamis in the recent decades. A tsunami with three petajoules of energy struck Japan in 2011. New York City has enough energy to last for a week on that. But even that is insignificant when compared to one from just seven years ago.
The day after Christmas in 2004, an underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a tsunami. According to estimates, the wave had the same explosive force as 0.8 gigatons of TNT. In more concrete terms, that amounts to 3.35 exajoules, or as much energy as the entire United States of America will consume in 11 days. Exajoules: What the heck are they? That amounts to one quintillion joules.
4,184 joules of energy are produced by one calorie of food. 550 calories are in a Big Mac. This means that 2,301,200 joules are equal to one Big Mac. When the tsunami's exajoules are divided by its total energy, 1.46 trillion exajoules are created. Quite a few Big Macs, in fact.
- Power releases: 4,184 joules
