What is a Tsunami?

• Natural phenomenon characterized by a series of large and fast moving waves caused by sudden trauma in the ocean 
• Resulting in the vertical displacement of a large volume of water
• Derived from Japanese language, transcribed into English Harbor(tsu) & Wave (nami)
• Travel at great speeds across an ocean (500 -1000 kph), with hardly any energy losses and are barely noticeable out at the sea
• Wavelengths can be in excess of 100 km 
• Common misleading term for Tsunami – ?tidal waves?
• Occur in Pacific ?Ring of Fire?,  Indian Ocean, Caribbean, & Mediterranean

 

The Great Tsunami (December 26, 2004) Affecting Southern Asia & Eastern Africa

•     Earthquake over 9.0 on the Richter scale

•     Occurred under the Indian ocean floor (coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra) 

•     Violent Earth's tectonic plates displaced

•     Within hours, tsunami waves slammed 12 coastlines in Indian Ocean countries.

•     The tsunami waves reached up to 15 meters (50 feet)

•     Killed over the 300k people in 12 countries (Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Maldives, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, and Kenya)

•     120k people killed in Indonesia  and over  500k people  injured

•      The hardest hit country was Indonesia

•     Reported death tolls with almost all mortalities from the Aceh Province at the northern end of the island of Sumatra. 

•     Immediate need for food, water, health care and services

•     A disaster after a disaster

•     And there were no warning alarm on Tsunami in Indonesia and Malaysia

 

How to Prevent Future Disasters? (The Importance of Tsunami Warning Systems)

 

1)Tsunami Detection and Warning System (Source: The US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program)

•     Water level monitoring via bottom pressure measurements

•     DART – (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis)

•     Pacific and Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System

 

2) Other possible prevention methods

•     Breakwaters (coastal defence)

•     Natural coastal protection (Mangroves)

•     Educating people living by sea (Quickest escape route and danger signs)

•     Public awareness about tsunami

 

Summary of 26 December 2004 Tsunami Nightmare

•     One of the most natural disastrous events in human recorded history

•     Caused enormous damage and loss to human societies.

•     Cost billions of dollars and decades to restore its damage.

•     Provided us a chance to look back at the serious mistakes we have made when promoting development without considering the natural forces that sustain us.

 

From the lessons given by the tsunami, we need to establish an international mechanism in which more prosperous countries are obliged to help the poorer ones while the poor countries are obliged to show strong commitments in improving their capacity.
Human societies need to be united in order to mitigate all kind of unwanted natural disasters.