A tsunami (해일, haeil) takes the ocean's scale and turns it specifically threatening — where a calm sea reads as vast opportunity, a tsunami reads as an equally vast crisis, one big enough that it feels genuinely unstoppable in the dream.
Being swept away by a tsunami is read as being overtaken by circumstances entirely beyond your control — one of the more intense expressions of powerlessness available in this whole tradition, generally connected to a real situation that currently feels too big to manage on your own.
Watching a tsunami approach from a safe distance, without being personally caught in it, is read differently — anticipating a crisis rather than living through one, sometimes interpreted as advance warning that gives you a real chance to prepare before it fully arrives.
Surviving a tsunami, especially by reaching high ground or safety before impact, is read as resilience — coming through an overwhelming period specifically because you saw it coming and acted, rather than simply enduring it passively. This is one of the more actionable readings in the category, since the dream's own internal logic rewards preparation.