The World

Tsunami in a Tank

At Oregon State University, researchers are creating their own small scale tsunamis to study how the huge waves behave and wreak havoc.

Massive tsunamis are rare, destructive, and nearly impossible to study in real time. At Oregon State University, researchers are learning from the next best thing: tsunamis they create in the lab. From the IEEE Spectrum special “Responding to Disasters: From Prediction to Recover,” Lauren Sommer reports.