Only about an hour after midnight on December 26th 2004, a great tragedy transpired in the Indian Ocean. A devastatingly powerful 9.3 magnitude earthquake suddenly shook the ground with such force that scientists say “this earthquake had enough power to rock the Earth off its axis” (Chossudovsky). While panic ensued among the locals in Sumatra, nobody was prepared for what would come next. Deadly and intimidating walls of water averaging at more than ten meters tall, called a tsunami, began crashing onto coastlines of Sumatra only five minutes later. By the end of the day, “a death toll of over two-hundred thousand in thirty-seven countries was confirmed along with several thousand other ‘missing’ persons”(Nichols College). What was it about this earthquake and the tsunamis it produced that allowed it to cause so many fatalities?
Perhaps the very location of the original earthquake was the most obvious reason to blame. The earthquake was the result of the sub ducting Indian plate and overriding Burma plate which was followed by many aftershocks moving north along the Sumatra fault line. A scholarly journal published by Nichols College states that with an epicenter “approximately one hundred miles off the coast of Sumatra Island and occurring at a depth of 6.2 miles”, energy from the quake had hardly any time to disperse over the water before reaching coastlines (Nichols College). A journal by LiveScience states that “…paths of wave energy extended up to twelve-thousand miles from the earthquake epicenter” (Bjorn). The LiveScience journal also reports that “there was no direct damage caused by the tsunami outside of the Indian Ocean basin” (Bjorn). The Indian Ocean’s rather smaller size with land wrapping all around it ...
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Chossudovsky, Michael. "Nine Years Ago, December 26, 2004: Indian Ocean Tsunami. Why Did the Information Not Get Out?" Global Research. Center for Research on Globalization, 24 Dec. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
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Works Cited Charles F. Walker, Shaky Colonialism: The 1746 Earthquake-Tsunami in Lima, Peru, and Its Long Aftermath, Duke University Press, 2008. Shravan, G. The New York Times Company. 2012. The. 0.
Tsunamis can kill 230,000–280,000 people and rogue waves kill very little people. The only similarity they have is they are destructive and they’re formed in
The tsunami in Thailand that occurred on December 26, 2004, was by far the largest tsunami catastrophe in human history. It was triggered by a magnitude 9.1-9.3 earthquake along the Indian-Australian subduction zone off the northern coast of Sumatra. The tsunami waves traveled primarily in the east to west direction and caused major damage along the coasts of southern Thailand. Unpredictably, it was a violent earthquake beneath the sea that initiated the massive waves and struck more than a dozen countries in Southern Asia. It also destroyed thousands of miles of coastline and even submerged entire islands permanently. Throughout the region, the tsunami killed more than 150,000 people, and a million more were hurt, homeless, and without food or drinkable water, making it perhaps the most destructive tsunami in the modern history. In spite of peninsular Thailand's location facing the northern part of this subduction zone, the lack of any written historical records, together with the lack of any major local seismic activity, the tsunami caused thousands of fatalities and huge economic losses in the popular tourist regions in Thailand. Immediately after the disaster, numerous organizations and individual citizens have helped out and contributed to this devastating tsunami. Indeed, the tsunami in Thailand was a worldwide event, with significant wave action felt around the world. In this context, I am focusing more on the key features of the tsunami’s natural causes, the psychological effects on citizens, the perspective of socio-economic impacts and the consequences of the tsunami calamity.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami took place on December 26th, 2004 and had a magnitude of 9.15. The cause of the Sumatra Tsunami was due to the sliding of two tectonic plates. Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, is situated on the boundary of the two plates; part of Sumatra is situated on the India/Australian plate and the other part is on the Eurasian plate. The Indian/Australian plate and Eurasian plate connect on the ocean floor at the boundary, a little over 100 miles off the short of Sumatra. Sumatra was one among the many countries that was impacted by these natural disasters. To fully understand the Sumatra Tsunami one must examine the events that led up to it, what a tsunami is, and the damage caused.
The change in climate also affect the ocean currents and heat up the land under the water causing tsunamis. For example, The Japan earthquake and tsunami which took place on march 11, 2011.
TOHOKU, Japan, Friday, Mar. 11 -Yesterday, a 9.0 magnitude Earthquake struck the east of Tohoku, Japan. The epicentre of the earthquake was located approximately 72 km east of Tohoku (38.3 degrees North latitude and 142.4 degrees East longitude), or 130 km east of Sendai as shown by the X in figure 3 below. The focus of the earthquake was 24.4 km under the epicentre. The earthquake therefore caused a tsunami due to the displacing of water above the Pacific Plate. The earthquake and tsunami together have caused approximately 20,000 deaths, 6152 injuries and 2500 people missing. Approximately 90% of these deaths were by drowning. Approximately 140,000 people have been displaced and over 500,000 buildings and structures have been destroyed or damaged. The early warning system of Japan stopped many bullet trains, and many residents received texted warnings of the earthquake and tsunami on their mobile phones giving them time to evacuate. Figures 1 and 2 show exactly how destructive the tsunami caused by the Tohoku Earthquake was.
The Ocean Sea novel by Alesandro Baricco is a unique novel of several people who have different identities, goals and functions. All of the characters have somehow ended up in the Almayer Inn. The Ocean Sea defines all of the people in their identities, goals and functions except one unseen, but felt man who live in the seventh room of the Almayer Inn. Baricco distinguishes the Almayer Inn from other ordinary inns not only by giving some clues of an existing of a spiritual power in the Almayer Inn, but also by its location and its different guests. The Almayer Inn is on the beach and the guests are several people who have nothing in common; they do not share an age neither a goal. However, there is a mysterious man who live in the seventh room of the Almayer Inn and believed to be playing a significant part of all of the other people in the novel. In the end of the novel, the mysterious man leaves his room and disappears. Analyzing the facts that the children “the hosts” and the mysterious man were in the Almayer Inn first and leave last, children read their guests’ minds, act like
Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded, by Simon Winchester, gives a thrilling account of the cataclysmic disaster of the same name. Krakatoa, the volcanic island in Java whose whose disastrous eruption caused earthquakes and tsunamis felt around the world, is remembered as one of the biggest catastrophes in human history. The book’s exhilarating narrative of the legendary event gives readers a brand new perspective on the catastrophe. It’s diverse topics such as detailed accounts of the event to science factoids keeps the reader interested and engaged. Although its narration may be hard to understand for readers who are new to the nonfiction genre, Winchester does his best to portray the captivating true story and place the reader in the survivors’ shoes.
Additionally, this earthquake occurred on a thrust fault. This fault was a subduction zone slip which occurred primarily beneath the ocean were the Pacific plate plunges underneath the North American plate. This sudden upward movement of the sea floor along the rupturing fault generated a massive tsunami. This vertical deformation
Gammon, Crystal. "Massive Sea-floor Shove Triggered Japan's Tsunami." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 02 Dec. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
The influence of trading between Europe, Africa, and Asia and the influence of exploration in these countries is extremely extensive and still a big part of the world of trading today. The first question to the prompt asks, “Who traded with who? Why?”. Asia mainly traded around the east African coast and in India, the merchants who traded with these countries traveled by sea, so this was the most logical way to get to where they needed to go. They also had a guidebook called the Periplus which was written by an unknown merchant in Egypt, this guidebook told the people where to go, what to do when it came to the trading, and who they traded with. In Africa, they mainly traded with the Mediterranean’s and the slave owners in Mali. Furthermore,
While the early warning saved thousands of people, the Japan’s Meteorological Agency underestimated this earthquake as the subduction zone of Japan should not produce the magnitude 9.0 quake (Oskin, 2013a). The Tohoku Earthquake and its tsunami approximately killed 16 thousand people, injured 6 thousand people and around 3 thousand people were missing. Most people died from drowning. Around 300 thousand buildings, 4000 roads, 78 bridges, and many more were affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and fires from leaking oils and gas. Electricity, telecommunication, and railways were severely damaged. The debris of 25 million tons was generated and carried out to the sea by water (BBC News, 2012). The country’s authorities estimated more than 309 billion US dollars of damages. Landslides occurred in Miyagi and liquefaction in Chiba, Tokyo, Odaiba, and Urayasu (USGS, 2013). Furthermore, the tsunami destroyed protective tsunami seawalls. Approximately 217 square miles of Japan covered in water (Oskin,
...d out the leakage a year later. Another cause of the disaster is that government ignored the chance of tsunami. Scientists warned about the dangerousness of tsunami, and advised them to build more protection to tsunami threatening. However, the government did not consider the advise (IAEA, 2011)
The death toll climbs to over 10,000 and is still rising (Branigan 2). The disaster in Japan began without warning on Friday March 11, 2011 at 2:46pm with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in the country (Fackler 3). A massive thirty-three foot high tsunami, generated by the earthquake, swept over lands in northern Japan, taking objects and debris with it. To make matters worse, the tsunami caused the cooling systems at several nuclear power plants to fail. The disaster in Japan was a tragic event, and it had a plethora of causes and effects.