Some very interesting information about the recent Tsunami incidents in Japan has been uncovered. The colossal tsunami produced by the March 2011 earthquake off the coast of northeastern Japan was a "merging tsunami."

Experts are using this term to describe a sort of tsunami long thought to exist, but seen for the first time at a later date.

The magnitude-9.0 Tohoku-Oki temblor which is officially the fifth-most formidable quake ever documented, sparked off a tsunami that increased twofold in concentration over craggy ocean ridges, intensified its harsh and devastating power at landfall.

This is all evidence that has been seen in data from NASA and European radar satellites that secured at least two wave fronts that day.

The fronts fused together to develop a single, wave double in height far out at sea. This wave was able to withstand traveling extensive distances without losing power, unlike regular waves.

Ocean ridges and undersea mountain sequences forced the waves together along particular directions from the tsunami's origin.

The researchers have reason to believe that ridges and undersea mountain chains on the ocean floor bounced parts of the preliminary tsunami wave away from each other to form self-regulating jets bursting off in separate directions. Each with its own damaging wave fronts in different intensities.

The discovery which was presented Monday at the once a year meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco helped explain how tsunamis can and at times do cross over several ocean basins to bring about massive destruction at some locations while concurrently leaving others relatively without a scratch.

The data introduced is causing scientists to hope that in the future tsunami forecasts may be dramatically improved. This is especially good news to countries that, like Japan, are susceptible to threats of tsunami.