Tidal waves and tsunamis — the two most powerful types of wave on Earth— are often confused in popular discourse. While the terms are sometimes used synonymously, tidal waves and tsunamis actually have distinct causes.
"The English term tidal wave dominated until the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, partly because most tsunami observations until then described water phenomena that resembled fast advancing or fast-receding tides," Costas Synolakis, director of the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California, told Live Science. "In 2004, we got access to several videos from the tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand, and realized that giant tsunamis do not resemble tides."
