Does any body know why scientist could not have predicted the tsunami?

Question

i am talking about the tsunami in 2005

Answer 1

scientific prediction of earthquakes and tsunami are in the infant stage. to predict accurately a tsunami would require at this time powers we only ascribe to GOD.

Answer 2

That would have meant precisely predicting the huge  earthquake that caused the tsunami. There is no way at the current time to do that. The problem was that in that area there was not a warning system in place to warn people of the tsunami. It happened after the quake and in some cases a while after the quake since it covered such a huge area. In the United States, and Japan and some other countries there are warning systems for tsunamis. I do not live near a coast so I do not know how they work. But the 2005 tsunami hit in the 3rd world and most of the areas had no funding for such a system.

There have been attempts at earthquake prediction, some people say animals have a sense ahead of time, a quake in China in the 70's was predicted by the behavior of animals. But this recent one in China was not.

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Answer 3

  Two problems: predicting the earthquake and then predicting the tsunami.  The former has been well discussed in the media.  The latter involves knowing the shape of the earthquake and that it is moving a large amount of water.  Some faults are well enough known that if small quakes start showing up in that area, a person could say a major tsunami might result, but unknown structure limits forecasting.

The detection systems for tsunami do not forecast they announce the existence of one after it has formed and may give enough information to allow warning announcements ahead of the wave.  Which leads to the problem in many countries: How do you tell people that it is coming when they have no radios or alarm systems?