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It's probably a question too general for this forum, but I'm not sure.

The other day, I was in the beach, near the sea, and a big wave came towards me. So, instead of running from the wave, I decided to dive into the wave and come out on the other side.

Would it be possible to do this in case of a tsunami? How does the water inside of a tsunami flows?

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    $\begingroup$ I think this is probably not a physics question, but it's important to understand that tsunamis are not anything like the way they are usually portrayed: they are not giant versions of breaking waves, but rather have periods of minutes. What happens in a tsunami is essentially that the sea just rises and keeps on rising. So no, you can't swim through them. $\endgroup$
    – user107153
    Commented Apr 3, 2016 at 17:15
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with @tfb, they are like short (by comparison) duration storm surges. Water just keeps coming in and does so for several minutes. Only in rare cases with the right change in water height and initial conditions would one expect the more "dramatic" movie-like breaking wave. $\endgroup$
    – honeste_vivere
    Commented Apr 4, 2016 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ the short answer is NO: get to high ground or go out to sea. in shallow water, according to linear theory, the flow has no depth dependence, so "duck diving" under the wave won't help. however, the lagrangian displacement will scale with the wave slope, which is very small in deep water, and becomes progressively larger as one approaches shore (like $a\sim h^{-1/4}$). $\endgroup$
    – Nick P
    Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 9:25
  • $\begingroup$ Even if a tsunami really was just a thin tall wave of water like you imagine, it's still going to suck you out to sea on the way back out. It's a butt load of water. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Commented Jun 3, 2022 at 13:34

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No. Multiple reasons:

  1. The "other side" is far away.

Tsunami waves are extremely broad. You would need to swim several km, or wait underwater several minutes.

  1. The currents are too strong.

In a water wave, the highest currents are near the surface. The current speeds drop to less than 5% at a depth equal to half the wavelength

Due to their sheer broadness, tsunami waves require all the water below then to move at roughly the same speed. For breaking tsunami near the beach, this means around 30kmh

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The problem with surviving a tsunami is not the water. It's the stuff in it. Once it has made contact with land, your average tsunami wave will contain cars, tree trunks, shipping containers, houses ground into pieces, rocks, trucks, mud, and all sorts of stuff.

enter image description here

Here's an example video of a small flash flood. If you look at it, that's the kind of "fluid" I'm talking about. It does move like a fluid, but it's basically a grinder. Anyone attempting to swim in there would be bashed by heavy objects, then ground into a pulp, and buried under tons of mud.

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