This is what normal wave motion looks like.
Do tsunamis that travel at 60mph look any different?
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$\begingroup$ This looks like a good question for SE.EarthScience. $\endgroup$– NatCommented Jul 26, 2018 at 7:37
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1$\begingroup$ earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/14688 $\endgroup$– DaleCommented Jul 26, 2018 at 7:41
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$\begingroup$ Out on the ocean, tsunamis have much higher speeds, like that of jet liner, 600 mph. $\endgroup$– user137289Commented Jul 26, 2018 at 10:01
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1 Answer
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The period of a tsunami is long (say about 30 minutes), so the wavelength of that wave is about 30 miles, much longer than the depth of the deep ocean (about 3 km).
And out on the ocean, speed is like that of a jet liner, about 800 km/h.
So tsunamis are shallow water waves, with a speed given by $v= \sqrt{g \lambda}$, even in the deep ocean.