Scary! Taller tidal waves to become a regular occurring in coastal cites like Mumbai, Chennai by the end of this century, suggests study

Tidal waves of over one metre are going to become a common occurring along the coasts of the south Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea by the end of this century, a new study has suggested. Tidal waves are basically caused by a gravitational pull between the Sun, Moon and the Earth. It will take rough sea conditions associated with tropical cyclones to cause tidal waves of over one metre to crash the shores.

Although the future with these kind of tidal waves seems to be distant but the time to act is now. With global warming already impacting the world’s weather patterns, an increase in wave heights could mean more damage to the people living on or along side the coastal regions. India especially has a sizable population living along the coastline, which runs over 7,500 km flanked to its east, west and south.

India’s seaports and cities like Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Panjim, among many others are the leading hubs for businesses and trade activities via the seas. But if these tall tidal enter the land, they can cause a series of damages including loss of shoreline and turning the groundwater salty.

According to the study, the height of tidal waves could see an increase of 0.4 metres in maximum significant wave heights projected over regions in the North Indian Ocean, northwest Arabian Sea, northeast Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea.

The study, which focused on future extreme wind-wave projections and presented scenarios for around 2050s and 2090s, has been jointly conducted by teams led by Prasad Bhaskaran from the Department of Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture, IIT-Kharagpur and Prashant Kumar, Department of Applied Sciences, NIT-Delhi.