Is there a difference between tsunami and tidal wave??
In common usage, people say “tidal wave” when they mean tsunami. In reality, most of those people don’t have an idea what an actual tidal wave is. A tsunami is caused sudden movements of mass, such as the earthquakes etc you mentioned. The only tsunami I have ever seen in person was less than a foot high, which is actually pretty typical. Of course, the ones you see on the news are much, much bigger. A tidal wave gets its energy from the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. The most dramatic are called bore tides. I often watched the one on Turnagain Arm in Alaska when I lived there. The waves were usually several feet tall where I went. Here is more information on one of the very few regular bore tides in the world: http://alaska.org/bore-tides.
