how come they know where a tsnaumi hits but they don't know where a hurrican will hit?

Question

like a hurican can hit anywhere and a tsnaumi can too

Answer 1

There are very precise models for tsunami because water is much less "fluid" than air. Also, they move a lot faster so there is less time for outside interference to effect the tsunami.

Now, while we can predict where a tsunami can hit, there is a large variability on the size of the tsunami. A 12 inch tsunami does not do much damage.

Answer 2

A tsunami is caused by an earthquake, which happens in a fixed point. Waves will be caused by the earthquake, and judging by the location of the earthquake, scientists can tell where the tsunami will form and the directions it will travel.
A hurricane is caused by air currents and varying temperatures. The weather is much harder to predict, and changes in wind direction and temperature can effect the direction a hurricane will go. Scientists can make an approximate guess for where a hurricane will hit, but they can't be certain because weather is not easily predicted.

Answer 3

Actually they do know where a hurricane will hit, though roughly.

You see, a hurricane is a fairly small thing. It can move side to side (deviate) from its predicted path, and make landfall where we didn't expect it to.

Tsunamis, on the other hand, are generated by deep earthquakes underneath the Earth's surface, and form massive ripples (tsunamis) that progress in a predictable way. These ripples really cannot change form, they just, well, go. They're thousands of miles long, unlike hurricanes, which are mostly less than 100 miles across.

So it is easier to predict where a 5,000 mile wide ripple will hit than it is to predict where a 100 mile wide hurricane will hit.

Doesn't hurt either that hurricanes are also subject to winds, and tsunamis, well, just go. They really don't care. ;-)

Answer 4

A hurricane is a storm and can change directions. Tsunami isn't really weather related, it's a huge wave (usually caused by an earthquake under the ocean), it doesn't change direction.

Answer 5

We know the path of a hurricane, just not where it will directly hit. The water tempature, wind speed, and jet stream all play an important role in hurricanes. Tsnaumi's are just a wave that tracels from point A to point B.

Answer 6

A tsunami runs in a straight line, thus is predictable. Weather is influenced by an infinite number of things (i.e. the butterfly effect) and is very difficult to predict.