Tsunamis are capable of traveling at over 600 miles per hour. A smooth wave in the ocean can travel up to about 90 kilometers per hour. An interesting thing about earthquakes and tsunamis is that if an earthquake occurs not too far away, it really shouldn't create a tsunami. Tsunamis are created by underwater earthquakes and a closer tectonic shift of plates. One thing needed to create a tsunami is a close earthquake. The next thing that would be needed to create a tsunami would be a vertical disturbance. A good example of this water movement is with a book and a bathtub. “There's a bathtub full of water and a hardback book. If you immerse the book in bath water from the spine and move it back and forth lengthwise, what do you observe? Not much, other than the fact that you ruined your book. Now, if you hold the book flat-sided on the surface of the water and move the book up and down in the water, you should generate large waves as the vertical motion you have imposed on the water column is transferred to the horizontal motion as the The wave moves away from the source.” This is basically how a tsunami is generated. This explains how tsunamis and earthquakes are influenced by vertical and non-vertical movements