Environmental hazards Case study: Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004
Understanding why natural hazards occur can help countries to manage or prevent their consequences. Case studies illustrate the impact of natural hazards in the short and long term.
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Case study: Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004
Indian ocean tsunami 2004.
A very common case study for earthquakes is the South-East Asian tsunami of 2004. Other case studies include Mexico 1985, San Francisco 1989, Kobe 1995 and Pakistan 2005.
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The causes and effects of the 2004 Asian tsunami
The underlying causes
On 26 December 2004 there was a massive and sudden movement of the Earth’s crust under the Indian Ocean. This earthquake was recorded at magnitude close magnitude The size or severity of something. For example, an earthquake. 9 on the Richter Scale close Richter scale The measure by which the strength of earthquakes is determined. and as it happened under the ocean, caused a devastating sea wave called a tsunami.
The epicentre close epicentre The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake. of the earthquake occurred 200 kilometres west of the island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake itself was caused by the subduction close subduction When one crustal plate is forced beneath the other. of the Indo-Australian plate under the Eurasian plate.
As the Indian plate (part of the Indo-Australian plate) moved underneath the Burma plate (part of the Eurasian plate) the crustal rocks stuck as they moved past one another. At 08:00 local time, the pressure build up was too great and the crustal rocks snapped, causing an earthquake.
When this happened the sea floor close sea floor The bottom of the ocean. was pushed upwards displacing a huge volume of water and creating the devastating tsunami waves.
Impact on landscape and population
- Some smaller islands in the Indian Ocean were completely destroyed.
- Coastal buildings were completely destroyed making people homeless.
- Fishing villages close fishing villages A small settlement where the main activity is catching fish. were completely destroyed.
- Lines of communication close lines of communication This refers to telephone cables and electricity power lines as well as roads and railways. , including phone lines, were cut off.
- Electricity power lines were cut off.
- Roads and railways were destroyed.
- Fires broke out due to severed water pipes.
- Approximately 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed, including many tourists close tourist Someone who travels for recreation or business purposes. on the beaches of Thailand.
- There was an outbreak of diseases such as cholera due to a lack of fresh water supplies.
- There was a lack of food as many fish died and farms were destroyed.
- Thousands of people were made homeless.
- Thousands of people lost their jobs as tourist hotels in Thailand were destroyed and fishing vessels were washed ashore.
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Case Study: Sumatra and Thailand and the 2004 Tsunami
The Importance of Tsunami Warning Systems and the challenges of warning communication.
Think back to the video you watched in Module 7 – which included scenes of the 2004 tsunami event in Indonesia. The beginning of the video focused on the Banda Aceh area of Sumatra, where fishing communities and small coastal cities were completely destroyed, and the end of the video featured the Phuket area, where more tourist beaches were affected.
Through your reading and watching the videos, you hopefully gained an idea of what it is like to be caught in a tsunami with no advanced warning, and how frantic the attempts to get out of the way must be. Imagine what it would be like to try to move small children, sick or elderly people out of the way of a tsunami with before the wave strikes and with no time to spare!
In Module 7, the events in Phuket, Thailand, are described, with tourists enjoying their vacation on the beach at Christmas 2004. Many are oblivious to the dangers of the approaching tsunami. What could have been done differently? If this were to happen again, would these communities be better informed and prepared?
In Module 7 we also mentioned that early warning systems are very tricky because of the challenges of getting the message out soon enough after the earthquake and before the tsunami waves arrive at a particular shoreline. For example, the towns on the west coast of Sumatra are so close to the Andaman fault that they had almost no time to react, so a warning may not have worked, regardless of how well it was transmitted. Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, was devastated in 2004 because people did not have time to react, while there is evidence that some small nearby island communities fared better where traditional knowledge of the natural warning signs such as the sudden receding of the tidal waters was employed, and residents were able to flee to higher ground. Meanwhile, the tourist destinations of Phuket and Phi Phi, and nearby locations in Thailand had 2 hours, but the warnings were lacking. Visitors lacked necessary knowledge of nature’s warning signs and how to react, and may not have felt the earthquake, so many lives were lost.
In response to the enormous loss of life in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Global Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System was put in place. The Indian Ocean tsunami warning system now integrates the signals from seismographs and DART Buoys and transmits data to 26 national centers. Warnings at the local level are generated in the form of SMS messages, mosque loudspeakers, sirens, and other methods to warn citizens. How well the warnings translate into lives saved due to rapid response and appropriate behaviors by the citizens depends on each step working properly. The failure of one of the steps can lead to disaster. If the citizens do not have the knowledge needed to take effective action, then the process will not work, and lives will be lost.
In 2012 another earthquake occurred near Banda Aceh in the Indian Ocean, so the newly implemented warning systems were put to the test. In this case, no tsunami was generated by the earthquake, but unfortunately, the weaknesses in the system were revealed. Despite the efforts expended to increase levels of tsunami preparedness since 2004, including new tsunami evacuation shelters and education programs, chaos ensued. Hearing the tsunami warning, people panicked and tried to flee by car, resulting in gridlock on the roads. It was clear that better guidance from the local government was needed, including clear evacuation route signage and regular drills. For more detail on this topic, read the National Geographic article Will Indonesia Be Ready for the Next Tsunami? Clearly, more work is still needed and ongoing to address these weaknesses.
Learning Check Point
We will spend a few minutes also revisiting the accounts of historic tsunami events – in particular, the 1960 event and its effects in Chile and Hilo, Hawaii, and the important messages about how to survive a tsunami. Please re-read some of the accounts of survival during tsunami events in Heed Natural Warnings .
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Indian Ocean Tsunami Remembered — Scientists reflect on the 2004 Indian Ocean that killed thousands
In the early hours of Dec. 26, 2004, one of the world’s most powerful earthquakes triggered one of the largest tsunamis in 40 years.
Sometimes known as the Christmas or Boxing Day tsunami, the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami is far from a distant memory, a decade after resulting in more than 200,000 casualities.
“The tsunami struck after the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake occurred off the northwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, causing catastrophic levels of destruction to countries around the Indian Ocean basin.”
Cause and Areas Impacted
The magnitude 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake occurred on the interface between the India and Burma tectonic plates .
According to USGS scientists, the sea floor near the earthquake was uplifted several meters. The displacement of water above the sea floor triggered the tsunami, which caused catastrophic levels of destruction in countries around the Indian Ocean basin, reaching as far as the east coast of Africa.
The tsunami arrived in northern Sumatra approximately 30 minutes after the earthquake, in Thailand approximately an hour and a half to two hours after the earthquake, and in Sri Lanka approximately two to three hours after the earthquake.
The tsunami was only recently rivaled by the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
“The foremost impact, of course, is the loss of life in both cases,” said Eric Geist, USGS research geophysicist. “For the 2004 tsunami, the loss of life far outweighed damage to infrastructure, whereas for the 2011 tsunami, there was significant damage to infrastructure in Japan.”
Countries hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami included Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Maldives , Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Kenya
Tsunami Research
The 2004 tsunami was the deadliest and one of the most destructive in recorded history.
Tsunami runup heights of more than 30 meters were observed along the west coast of Sumatra.
In Aceh and Sumatera Utara Provinces, Indonesia, at least 108,100 people were killed, 127,700 are missing and presumed dead and 426,800 were displaced by the earthquake and tsunami.
Bruce Richmond, a coastal geologist with the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, Calif,, along with USGS scientists Bruce Jaffe and Guy Gelfenbaum joined international survey teams to documenttsunami impacts, collect water level information, and map erosion and deposition of sediments to characterize the sedimentary record. The tsunami effects were studied in an effort to develop techniques to improve the identification of paleotsunami deposits in the geologic record.
“Our studies were conducted in a variety of coastal environments impacted by the tsunami and went a long way in helping us to understand the variability of deposits from a single event in multiple coastal settings,” Richmond said.
Future Implications and Preparation
Before the Indian Ocean Tsunami occurred, USGS geologists had been assessing tsunami hazards in California, seeking evidence of past tsunami deposits along California’s shores. “Not long after we started our California work in 2004, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami struck which changed the focus of our efforts for several years,” said Richmond. “At the time, that tsunami was the largest natural disaster in our lifetimes, both in terms of lives lost and widespread impact. Our observations on many different shorelines around the Indian Ocean went a long way in helping us to understand the variability of deposits from a single event in multiple coastal settings.”
Geist, too, said he and his USGS counterparts’ research since then has focused on taking the lessons learned from the 2004 and 2011 tsunamis and applying them to hazard issues that affect the U.S. Could it happen here?
“Initially, my research focus was evaluating the performance of hazard assessment models if they had been used prior to the tsunami,” Geist said. “Since then, our research has focused more on taking the lessons learned from both tsunamis and applying them to hazard issues that affect the U.S.”
Bruce Jaffe, research oceanographer, said that earthquakes and tsunamis like those in 2004 have brought awareness and the need to study and prepare for these often underestimated hazards
“The take-home message is that we still have a lot to learn about what the real hazard of tsunamis are,” he said. “We’re getting there but it’s taking time.”
Indian Ocean Earthquake Triggers Deadly Tsunami
USGS Public Lecture:
Ten Years After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: How geology is reducing tsunami risk
by Bruce Jaffe USGS Research Oceanographer
FAQs about the Magnitude 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman Islands Earthquake that caused the tsunami
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Join get revising, already a member, case study: indian ocean tsunami, 2004.
- Created by: Jamie Grainger
- Created on: 12-04-17 10:05
CASE STUDY: INDIAN OCEAN BOXING DAY TSUNAMI, 2004
- Earthquake had a magnitude of 8-8.9 on Richter scale.
- Epicentre 256km off Sumatra's coastline.
- Hypocentre depth of 10km below sea level.
- Destructive boundary between the Indo-Australian plate.
- Earthquake of 9.1 caused seabed to rise 15m.
- Earthquake released 1/8th of all earthquake energy released over 100 years.
- 1:00am, GMT.
- 26th December, 2004.
- High population density caused major casulties.
- Hot climate means disease and lack of sanitation is a contributer to death toll.
- An LEDC example of an earthquake.
Social Impacts:
- Many small coastal villages were wiped off the map, including Kao Lak.
- Many people especially those on the beach were drowned immediately.
- Total death toll estimated at 228,000.
- 1.7 million were left homeless or displaced.
- Widespread …
- Natural hazards
Report Tue 28th May, 2019 @ 19:55
beautiful case study
Report Mon 27th March, 2023 @ 09:12
could specify countries affected
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IMAGES
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COMMENTS
Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 A very common case study for earthquakes is the South-East Asian tsunami of 2004. Other case studies include Mexico 1985, San Francisco 1989, Kobe 1995 and Pakistan 2005.
A major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. A massive tsunami with waves up to 30 m (100 ft) high devastates communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean.
The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake: A Case Study • Dec 26, 2004: Magnitude 9.3 (moment mag) • Undersea (depth 30 km) • Epicentre of the W coast of Sumatra • Tsunami followed, killing 225,000 in 11 countries • Caused by subduction: A 1600 km faultline slipped ~15 m along the subduction zone with the India plate slides under the Burma
Terms in this set (22) When was the tsunami? December 2004. What was the magnitude of the earthquake that caused the tsunami? 9.1. What caused the earthquake and the resulting tsunami? The denser continental Australian plate is subducted by the lighter and smaller continental Sunda microplate. The build up of pressure caused the Indian Ocean to ...
According to the US Geological Survey it measured 9.1 on the Richter Scale. 1) If one tectonic plate is dragged beneath another, stress on the boundary causes the edges of the plates to flex and deform. 2) The flexing of the plates displaces the entire column of water vertically. 3) Quickly the water column splits into two with one travelling ...
On December 26, 2004, at 7:59 am local time, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Over the next seven hours, a tsunami —a series of immense ocean waves—triggered by the quake reached out across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa.
In response to the enormous loss of life in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Global Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System was put in place. The Indian Ocean tsunami warning system now integrates the signals from seismographs and DART Buoys and transmits data to 26 national centers. Warnings at the local level are generated in the form of SMS ...
Sometimes known as the Christmas or Boxing Day tsunami, the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami is far from a distant memory, a decade after resulting in more than 200,000 casualities. “The tsunami struck after the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake occurred off the northwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, causing catastrophic levels ...
227,898 dead [6] [7] [8] On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7 ), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw struck with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, [10] [11] was caused by a ...
Fullscreen. CASE STUDY: INDIAN OCEAN BOXING DAY TSUNAMI, 2004. Causes: Earthquake had a magnitude of 8-8.9 on Richter scale. Epicentre 256km off Sumatra's coastline. Hypocentre depth of 10km below sea level. Destructive boundary between the Indo-Australian plate. Earthquake of 9.1 caused seabed to rise 15m. Earthquake released 1/8th of all ...