A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water. Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead resemble a rising tide. For this reason, it is referred to as a tidal wave, although this usage is not favoured by the scientific community because it might give the false impression of a causal relationship between tides and tsunamis. Tsunamis 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, they can affect entire ocean basins. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean; the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides suggested in his 5th century BC History of the Peloponnesian War that tsunamis were related to submarine earthquakes, but the understanding of tsunamis remained slim until the 20th century and much remains unknown. Major areas of current research include determining why some large earthquakes do not generate tsunamis while other smaller ones do; the term "tsunami" is a borrowing from the Japanese tsunami 津波, meaning "harbour wave". For the plural, one can either follow ordinary English practice and add an s, or use an invariable plural as in the Japanese; some English speakers alter the word's initial /ts/ to an /s/ by dropping the "t", since English does not natively permit /ts/ at the beginning of words, though the original Japanese pronunciation is /ts/.

Tsunamis are sometimes referred to as tidal waves. This once-popular term derives from the most common appearance of a tsunami, that of an extraordinarily high tidal bore. Tsunamis and tides both produce waves of water that move inland, but in the case of a tsunami, the inland movement of water may be much greater, giving the impression of an high and forceful tide. In recent years, the term "tidal wave" has fallen out of favour in the scientific community, because the causes of tsunamis have nothing to do with those of tides, which are produced by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun rather than the displacement of water. Although the meanings of "tidal" include "resembling" or "having the form or character of" the tides, use of the term tidal wave is discouraged by geologists and oceanographers. A 1969 episode of the TV crime show Hawaii Five-O entitled "Forty Feet High and It Kills!" used the terms "tsunami" and "tidal wave" interchangeably. The term seismic sea wave is used to refer to the phenomenon, because the waves most are generated by seismic activity such as earthquakes.

Prior to the rise of the use of the term tsunami in English, scientists encouraged the use of the term seismic sea wave rather than tidal wave. However, like tsunami, seismic sea wave is not a accurate term, as forces other than earthquakes – including underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, land or ice slumping into the ocean, meteorite impacts, the weather when the atmospheric pressure changes rapidly – can generate such waves by displacing water. While Japan may have the longest recorded history of tsunamis, the sheer destruction caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami event mark it as the most devastating of its kind in modern times, killing around 230,000 people; the Sumatran region is accustomed to tsunamis, with earthquakes of varying magnitudes occurring off the coast of the island. Tsunamis are an underestimated hazard in the Mediterranean Sea and parts of Europe. Of historical and current importance are the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami, the 1783 Calabrian earthquakes, each causing several tens of thousands of deaths and the 1908 Messina earthquake and tsunami.

The tsunami claimed more than 123,000 lives in Sicily and Calabria and is among the most deadly natural disasters in modern Europe. The Storegga Slide in the Norwegian Sea and some examples of tsunamis affecting the British Isles refer to landslide and meteotsunamis predominantly and less to earthquake-induced waves; as early as 426 BC the Greek historian Thucydides inquired in his book History of the Peloponnesian War about the causes of tsunami, was the first to argue that ocean earthquakes must be the cause. The cause, in my opinion, of this phenomenon must be sought in the earthquake. At the point where its shock has been the most violent the sea is driven back, recoiling with redoubled force, causes the inundation. Without an earthquake I do not see; the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described the typical sequence of a tsunami, including an incipient earthquake, the sudden retreat of the sea and a following gigantic wave, after the 365 AD t

Piñon is an unincorporated ranching community in Otero County in southern New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The town is in the pinon-juniper shrublands habitat with an altitude of 6,060 feet, it is located at the intersection of NM Route 24 and NM Route 506. The postoffice in Piñon opened in 1907. In 2014, Piñon was ranked as the most politically conservative town in New Mexico; the area is subject to forest fires. In June 2011, the lightning-caused Gage Fire burned 1385 acres just to the west of town; the area was settled by the agricultural and hunter gatherer Jornada Mogollon people about 200 CE whose suzerainty ended with the influx of the Apache and other plains raiders around 1450. The town was named in 1907 by the local school teacher John W. Nations after the piñon pine trees in the area. "Welcome to Piñon, New Mexico" Panoramio

The Information Center for Israeli Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the Israeli art in Israel. Over 12,000 artists files are housed in the Center in the Israel Jerusalem; as a research center within the Israel Museum, the Information Center for Israeli Art houses materials related to a broad variety of Israeli visual art and artists. All regions of the country and numerous eras and art movements are represented. In addition to the papers of artists, the Center collects documentary material from art galleries, art dealers, art collectors, it houses a collection of over 700 Israeli art-related videos and publishes a selection of over 5,800 Israeli artist biographies online. The Information Center reopened after extensive museum renovations; the Center offers its visitors a wealth of material collected since 1975, now accessible through the computerized information system. Center visitors from all around the world can enjoy services providing them with digital information by email.

The Information Center for Israeli Art documents and catalogs information about Israeli artists and their work from the beginning of Israeli art till today. The center encompasses over 12,800 artists – painters, photographers, graphic designers, industrial designers, ceramicists and more; the material in the Center is collected into artist files, for prominent and well-known artists as well as those who have not been exhibited. The database and artist files include biographical information, newspaper clippings and articles regarding art shows in Israel and abroad, invitations to exhibitions, slides and photographs or artwork; the Information Center for Israeli Art contains important and unique collections from many galleries and artists. One example of this is the Debel Gallery Archives; the Debel Gallery was established in 1973 in Jerusalem. Since January 2007 the Debel Gallery Archive is housed within the Information Center for Israeli Art at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, it includes background material, exhibition histories, photos of invitations from 1973 to 1990, recordings of interviews with artists, correspondence with artists, much more.

An additional collection of rich visual material documenting Israeli art is the Israel Zafrir Photographer Archive, containing over 10,000 photographs of Israeli artwork and artists. The Gabriel Talphir Archive consists of letters and photographs sent by artists to the well known art critic and author; the Nahum Zolotov Archive found in the Center, contains sketches and notations from the renowned Israeli architect. The Frank E. van Raalte Film Archive contains over 100 films interviewing Israeli artists. The Bat Sheva and Yitzhak Katz Archive contains personal writings and letters of artists including Sionah Tagger, Israel Paldi and Arieh Lubin; the Artifact Gallery Archive contains exhibitions and artists files including Nahum Tevet, Philip Rantzer and Diti Almog. In addition, the Max Farbmann and the Jakob Eisenscher Archives include photographs and newspaper articles about these Israeli artists; as of January 2010, new information received by the Information Center for Israeli Art is filed digitally.

In 2011, the Center database had been enriched with over 25,000 newspaper articles, the number of exhibitions documented in the Center surpassed 15,000. The Center website offers bilingual information on 5800 selected Israeli artists and includes a short biography, thousands of Israeli works of art from the Israel Museum collection and other art collections from around the world as well as a comprehensive list of exhibitions for each artist. Visual arts in Israel Israeli sculpture List of public art in Israel The Information Center for Israeli Art at the Israel Museum List of selected Israeli artists from the Information Center for Israeli Art database at the Israel Museum List of Israeli Artist Archives found in the Information Center for Israeli Art database at the Israel Museum