Height of the tsunami:
Banda Aceh (northeast areas): 9 m
Banda Aceh (southwest areas): 25-31 m
Sabang island: 6 m
Nasi island (northwest of Banda Aceh): 8 m
Sigli (east of Banda Aceh): 5 m
Simeulue island: 15 m
Chapter 4 of "Earthquake and Tsunami":
Tsunami: the second Disaster
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Table of Contents
4.1. Sumatra (Indonesia) 4.2. Andaman and Nicobar islands, including North Sentinel island 4.4. Thailand 4.5. Mainland India 4.6. Sri Lanka
For photographs of the damage done by the tsunami see Tsunami Pctures |
4.1. Sumatra
While in most areas around the Indian Ocean that suffered serious damage from the event of 26 December 2004, it was not so much the earthquake but the following tsunami that caused the horrific loss of life and damage. The western coast of the northern Indonesian province of Aceh and its capital, Banda Aceh, suffered especially grievously. This is the landmass closest to the epicentre of earthquake and tsunami.
The loss of life along the western coast of Sumatra (marked in red below) has been enormous and the destruction of infrastructure (houses, bridges, roads , harbours, agricultural land) nearly total. That the province had suffered for decades from a vicious civil war did nothing to improve the situation. That war was stopped only briefly after the disaster and has resumed since makes reconstruction even more difficult.
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Height of the tsunami: Banda Aceh (northeast areas): 9 m Banda Aceh (southwest areas): 25-31 m Sabang island: 6 m Nasi island (northwest of Banda Aceh): 8 m Sigli (east of Banda Aceh): 5 m Simeulue island: 15 m
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The devastation of Banda Aceh: yellow line: shore line prior to the tsunami red line: extent of inundation by the tsunami red spots: measurement locations of tsunami flow depth and direction black numbers: representative measurements of tsunami flow depth (in m), in the citxy centre the depath was between 4 and 9 m (1 m = 3.28 feet) black arrows: direction of tsunami flow R: runup in the Lhoknga area (in direct line to the epicentre of the earthquake) exceed 25 m and may have reached 31 m
Graphic courtesy Borrero J.C. 2005. "Field Data and Setellite Imagery of Tsunami Effects in Banda Aceh." Science 308:1596 (10 June 2005)
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4.2. The Andaman and Nicobar islands, including North Sentinel island
Map showing the aftermath of the 26 December 2004
earthquake and tsunami in the Andaman and Nicobar
islands:
(1) the dead and missing for each locality with figures
available,
(2) +/- figures in meters of post-earthquake seismic uplift
(for only the Indira Point measurement are the data
corrected for the tidal range).
(3) elevations of marine terraces (indicative of ancient
uplifts/earthquakes) are given in parentheses (T 18-22
m).
(ref. Bilham R., Engdahl E.R., Feldl N., Satyabala S.P.
2005, "Partial and Complete Rupture of the Indo-Andaman
Plate boundary 1847-2004", PDF file under http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/
). Reproduced with permission courtesy Dr. R. Bilham.
North Sentinel island is the part of the Andamans that has suffered the most extensive geological changes. In human terms, this tiny, 72 square kilometer is land is among the strangest inhabited lands not only in the Andamans but on this planet. It is inhabited by an Andamanese tribe, the Sentineli, also called Sentinelese. What they call themselves is not known. This tiny tribe has been steadfast for centuries in refusing any contact with the outside world. The refusal continues to this day and has survived several Indian attempts to establish "friendship" and it has survived the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004. For more details on the Sentineli see Chapter 8 The Tribes.
Estimates of the Sentineli population range from 70 to 500 individuals - which nicely illustrates how little we known about them. For what little more detail that is available see Sentineli.
North Sentinel island before the earthquake and tsunami
of late December 2004 in a Google Earth picture. Photographs and map with explanation of the following
North Sentinel sequence curtesy Peter
Minton,
The island is roughly 10 km from east coast to west
coast.
EVS Islands, San Diego, California, USA.
North Sentinel island in January 2005. It was initially thought that the Sentineli would at the
very least suffer food shortages from the loss of their
shallow-water fishing grounds. With the coastline changed
beyond recognition around most of the island the wildlife
would have been destroyed, it was (reasonably) thought. Yet amazingly, the tribe (and the wildlife on which it
lives) seems to have coped and adapted to the new conditions
with a wholly unexpected flexibility. What little is known
about the present situation on the island indicates that the
Sentineli and the island's wildlife seem to cope
admirably.
The whole coastal geography has changed completely.
Below: map of the "new" post-earthquake-and-tsunami geography
North Sentinel island.
Base imagery: Landst ETM+ and ESA. Land above sea level: 10 m
interval contour lines. Imagery curtesy Peter
Minton San Diego, California, USA
Below: map of the vegetation types with the post-tsunami coastline
of North Sentinel island.
Base imagery: Landst ETM+ and ESA. Land above sea level: 10 m
interval contour lines. Imagery curtesy Peter
Minton San Diego, California, USA
Radar images measure surface roughness rather than
reflected light. The colour in the image comes from
combining two separate ASAR images acquired on different
dates (33 Jun 2004 and 30 Dec 2004) in order to highlight
differences between them. Green here signifies areas that
were raised in the 26 Dec 2004 event. It is clear that most
of the damage is concentrated on the coral reefs all around
the island. The island is roughly 10 km from east coast to
west coast.
The western bay of Katchal island before (left) and after
(right) the morning of 26 Dec 2004 Credit: Images acquired and processed by CRISP, National
University of Singapore For more detailed satellite photographs of Katchall, go
to
IKONOS image © CRISP 2004
SPOT image © CNES 2004
ERS image © ESA 2004
TERRA Modis image, NASA 2004http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/tsunami/tsunami.html
http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/tsunami/Katchall_20041228_20040710/Katchall_20041228_20040710.html
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Left: Trinket Island in the Nicobars: the low-lying and sandy island's outline before and after the tsunami (map drawn from satellite pictures). All of Trinket's inhabitants have been evacuated (mostly to Nancowry). It is not clear when or even whether they can return. The inhabitants' economic foundation (fishing and coconut plantations) have been severely damaged and it will take many years ifnot decades before the island can support the survivors.
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Arrival time (local) 26th December 2004, and height of the tsunami (1 m = 3.28 feet) Kata beach: 10:05 hours, max. height 4 m Patong beach: 10:06 hours, max height 5.5 m Kamala beach: 10:07 hours, max. height 5.3 m Khao Lak resort: 10:11 hours, max. height 10.6 m Phi Phi resort (off the eastern edge of the map): 5.8 m
Coastal parts most affected have been marked in transparent red.
Sea levels: 1. light blue: undisturbed, normal |
Left: In Tamil Nadu state, southwest India, the tsunami
destroyed the coast and with it much of the city of
Nagapattinam up to the red line drawn on the photograph.
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were both affected by the
destruction but Tamil Nadu more severely so. 2,200 km of the
east coast of India was devastated by the tsunami and around
14,500 people are known to have died or else are still
missing.In 900 villages 160,000 homes were destroyed and
650,000 people had to be evacuated. 12,000 hectares of
agricultural land were destroyed, 10,000 cattle drown and
74,000 fishing boats are said to have been damaged. Height of the tsunami: Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): 2.35 m (1 m =
3.28 feet) Madras (Chennai) (Tamil Nadu): 2.5 m Nagappattinam (Tamil Nadu): 2 m Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu): 1.85 m Cochin (Kerala): 1.5 m Goa: 1.7 m
Coastal parts most affected have been marked in red. Red dots: bridges destroyed Black numbers: houses destroyed in that coastal
area Red
numbers:
dead and missing in that
coastal area X Site
of train derailed by tsunami with 1,000 dead
Height of the tsunami in Sri Lanka in m (1 m = 3.28
feet) black area: land less than 10 m above sea
level red dots: sites of measuring blue bars: measured tsunami run ups black bars: maximum tsunami heights Courtesy Liu P. L.-F., Lynett P., Fernando H., Jaffe
B.E., Fritz H., Higman B., Morton R., Goff J., and Synolakis
C. 2005. "Observations by the International Tsunami Survey
Team in Sri Lanka." Science 308:1595 (10 June
2005)
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