TECTONICS AND TSUNAMI
See also Tsunami from Asteroid Impacts
Terradaily/SpaceDaily series of reports - thanks Simon Mansfield
*** First Report ***
- Quake rocks north of Indonesia's Sumatra island
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226015805.dpvhwqsl.html
*** Lead Roundups ***
- Tidal wave quake hit 9.0 on Richter scale: US Geological Survey
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226230822.l8yi1ms7.html
- UN leads world answer to desperate pleas for help after wave disaster
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226224926.1ehqtxo3.html
- Death toll from Asian quake, tidal waves nears 11,500
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226221923.oajrvw6o.html
- No warning system in place for tsunami-hit countries: USGS
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226195757.qj7o1toi.html
- Magnitude of Sumatra quake raised to 8.9 on Richter scale
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226083349.uu325qm0.html
- Deadly earthquakes worldwide in the past century
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226180401.ajden5rz.html
- 8.9 Sumatra quake fifth-largest since 1900: USGS
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226175057.lghr1k3t.html
- Asia's worst earthquakes since 1970
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226174918.j52ifqlx.html
- Asian quake hits one year on from Bam disaster
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226140948.mvlyzw1u.html
- Asian super-quake largest in four decades
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226120315.rs9p7n8s.html
- Giant walls of water leave trail death and destruction across Asia
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226182642.i9io37ye.html
- UN sends disaster teams to help Asia tsunami victims
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226184432.k11utf66.html
- European tourists tell of death and devastation from killer waves
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226174746.kvzzmc4c.html
- New York, US East Coast also face tsunami threat: scientists
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226152117.76iv431d.html
*** Tourist Resorts ***
- Foreign tourists missing as tidal waves slam Thailand's Phuket resort
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226044142.fgp58lre.html
- Fears for thousands of foreign tourists in Asian tidal wave zone
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226155614.9nbd7ri4.html
- Pakistan calls for global effort to deal with Asia quake
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226131708.mrm7uc4n.html
*** Sri Lanka ***
- More than 4,300 killed in Sri Lanka's worst-ever disaster
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226221334.dxl6ee6d.html
- Tidal waves cause havoc in Sri Lanka
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226042217.5gjvuehr.html
- Thousands displaced as massive tidal waves hit Sri Lanka
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226034739.ncqvpgis.html
- Sri Lanka president appeals for doctors to help in catastrophe
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226205652.d5tnty5n.html
- Shaken tourists wish for another Sri Lanka holiday without drama
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226201950.5exrt4fu.html
- 300 Sri Lankan convicts escape as tsunami destroys jail
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226080620.v96ih8vr.html
*** India ***
- Indian armed forces deploy to help victims of massive tsunami
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041226185730.lrjgxeym.html
- India dispatches aid and medicine after killer tsunamis, offers help
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041226140834.we8oy8d9.html
- Giant wall of water washes away thousands of lives, homes in India
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226191725.na2wiip3.html
- At least 2,600 dead as tidal waves devastate southern India
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226191514.y4okn4ru.html
- Indian death toll from tidal waves rises above 2,600
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226184721.39fiols8.html
*** Thailand ***
- Tsunami-hit locations among the tourist jewels of Indian Ocean
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226130905.vulgeyw9.html
- Foreign tourists missing as tidal waves slam Thailand's Phuket resort
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226044142.fgp58lre.html
- Fears for thousands of foreign tourists in Asian tidal wave zone
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226200038.d0yke0bx.html
- 'Everyone at the beach died': Polish tourist in Thai tidal wave
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226180144.eigbpxm9.html
- Death, devastation swamp Thailand's tsunami-stricken resort island Phuket
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226160803.buqmnwej.html
*** Africa ***
- Deadly waves from Asia quake hit African coast
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226194232.oamzjs9n.html
- African nations clear Indian Ocean beaches at risk from killer waves
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/041226172032.9j6i9q8y.html
The Great
Earthquake and Tsunami of 26 December 2004 in Southeast Asia
Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis
- homepage
(site overloaded on 29 Dec 04)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/1029/
Prepared for Greek newspapers and translated by Dr Pararas-Carayannis.
On Sunday, 26 December 2004, the greatest earthquake in 40 years
occurred about 150 kilometers off the west coast of northern Sumatra
Island in Indonesia. The moment magnitude of the earthquake - which is
larger than the Richter magnitude - was 9. This makes it
the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and the
largest since the 1964 Alaska earthquake. The quake was widely felt in
Sumatra, the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,
Thailand, Bangladesh and India.
The region where this great earthquake took place marks the boundary
where the great tectonic plates of India and Australia collide with the
Sunda and the Eurasian plates, and where large catastrophic earthquakes
and volcanic explosions and tsunamis have occurred for millions of
years. It is the same tectonic interaction that was responsible
for the cataclysmic 1815 explosion of the Tambora volcano and the
prehistoric explosion of the Taba volcano in Northern Sumatra. It is
also the same general region where a large earthquake with a Richter
magnitude of 7.9 occurred, as recently as June 4, 2000.
The great earthquake of December 26, 2004 was extremely damaging and
resulted in many deaths. However, most of the destruction and deaths
were caused by the catastrophic tsunami waves it generated. Massive
tsunami waves wiped out entire coastal areas across southeastern Asia,
Sri Lanka, India and islands in the Andaman Sea and the Indian
Ocean. The tsunami waves caused considerable destruction and
killed people as far as 1,600 kilometers away. As of the writing
of this article, more than 23,000 people have lost their lives. The
death toll is expected to rise considerably in the next few days.
Destructive tsunami are not uncommon in the Bay of Bengal or along the
Sunda Trench. On June 26, 1941, a devastating earthquake in the
Andaman Sea, with a Richter magnitude greater than 8.O, generated
a major tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people on the east coast of
India. However, at that time, the media incorrectly attributed the
deaths and damage to storm surges rather than to a tsunami generated by
an earthquake. Many more deaths must have occurred but were not
reported.
The catastrophic impact of tsunami on human society is not limited to
this region of the world or to the countries bordering the Pacific
Ocean. Destructive earthquakes and tsunamis have ravaged the Eastern
Mediterranean Basin, the Greek mainland and the islands of the Aegean
and Ionian Seas. The eastern Mediterranean basin where the Anatolian
plate extends, is one of the world's most intense seismic zones where
large destructive earthquakes occur with frequency.
The impact of tsunamis in the early societies of the Eastern
Mediterranean Sea can be traced back in written history to the 15th
century B.C., when the Minoan civilization was wiped out by tsunami
waves generated by the explosion and massive collapse of the volcano of
Santorin, and by large earthquakes in the Southern Aegean Region.
References to other catastrophic waves in the eastern Mediterranean
include a tsunami that killed thousands of people in ancient
Alexandria, on July 21, 365.
In more recent times, from a total of 613 known historic earthquakes,
at least 41 major events generated tsunamis that struck coastal areas
of the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands. Sixteen of these
earthquakes resulted in really damaging or disastrous tsunamis. Between
1801 and 1958, 482 earthquakes with intensity equal or greater than VI,
and 170 with intensity greater than VIII occurred. Twenty of these
earthquakes resulted in tsunamis and six of these tsunamis were
particularly damaging or disastrous in the Aegean Sea. The best
documented and most recent destructive earthquakes and tsunamis in the
Aegean Sea occurred on 9 July 1956 near the southwest coast of the
island of Amorgos. It killed 53 people, injured 100, and destroyed
hundreds of houses. The tsunami waves were as high as 25 and 20
meters, on the south coast of Amorgos and on the north coast of the
island of Astypalaea. The waves were very damaging in many other Greek
islands
The vulnerability of Greece to the tsunami hazard should not be
overlooked. If an earthquake similar to the 1956 occurred today,
particularly during the summer months when Greeks and foreign visitors
crowd the beaches and coastal areas, the potential death toll would be
great. A program of tsunami preparedness and a system of disseminating
warning information should be established. Efforts to establish such an
educational and warning network, spearheaded by Dr. Gerassimos
Papadopoulos of the Athens Geodynamic Institute, should be
encouraged and endorsed. The effects of a potential tsunami
disaster in Greece can be mitigated and minimized only through
such a system of preparedness.
Nobody should have been surprised
By Denis DELBECQ
on Tuesday, December 28th, 2004 (Liberation -
06:00), France.
http://www.libe.fr/page.php?Article=264488
Translation by Dr George
Pararas-Carayannis
Consultant to international organizations, George Pararas-Carayannis
(1) was for a long time director of the international Tsunami
Information
Center (ITIC), based in Hawaii.
Question : No warning for the tsunami was given Sunday by the Centre
(PTWC) in Hawaii. Why?
Answer : The Indian ocean is not part of the Pacific zone which is
under the supervision of
the Tsunami Warning System . It is for this reason that scientists
at (PTWC) in Hawaii could
not issue a warning . There was no one in the threatened regions that
could receive or act on
the bulletin that was issued (by PTWC).
It takes about a minute to measure (at PTWC) an earthquake and to
know that it is large enough to
require the issuance of a warning (Pacific). In the present
case (Sunday), more than an hour
for the informational bulletin to reach appropriate authorities - who
did not have the
capability to pass any type of warning information to the threatened
regions India and
Shri Lanka. . It was already too late for them.
There is no established international coordination in this region of
the world and
therefore ther is no ability to issue warnings.
Why?
The countries bordering the Indian ocean have basic facilities of
seismic instrumentation and
communications. Nobody should have been surprised, since earthquakes
with magnitude 8,1
had occurred in the region previously. The local authorities
should have been alerted. But
unfortunately what is missing in the region is sufficient
interest to participate and
coordinate effectively into a regional warning system as it
is done for other areas of the
Pacific. More than anything, what is needed is public education program
of hazard awareness and
a plan for disaster preparedness. Such public educational programs are
strongly supported in
places like Hawaii and Japan and disaster preparedness is part of the
school curriculum.
Children and adults who live in coastal areas know what to do in case a
tsunami warning is
issued. Even if there is no official notiication from the
authorities, people know of the tsunami
hazard and of measures that must be taken to protect themshelves.
A successful program of
preparedness requires planning and organization by the local
authorities. Such a program of
preparedness needs to become the responsibility of a center or a civil
defense organization in
each country or region. Such as center must also have the ability to
issue effective and timely
warnings to the threatened coastal populations - even in remote coastal
villages. Since there is
not such an operational center (at the present time), even if a warning
had been issued Sunday,
it is doubtful that the information would have reached the populations
of coastal villages in
the region.
Can populations be protected from tsunamis?
Of course! However there are many more additional hazards associated
with tsunamis that the
population of a threatened area must be warned about. Not only the
waves are dangerous but they
can carry floating objects and projectiles which may increase their
destructive capability.
Mangrove vegetation in certain areas can provide a degree of protection
in helping to dissipate
the energy of the waves.
In Hawaii, after the tsunami of 1960, the building codes of building
were revised.
Numerous hotels close to the shoreline were built in such a way
as to allow the water of the
tsunami to pass underneath so that the damage is limited and confined
to the first two floors.
Guest at hotels are evacuated to higher floors. Along shorelines that
have flat topography and
evacuation impossible - as at Papua-New Guinea - I have
recommended the construction of platforms
with foundations that withstand the impact of tsunami waves. In case of
warning, or need,
people could take refuge to these platforms. Surely, it represents a an
investment which may
be difficult for poor countries, but it is an investment that could
save lives. but again, the
best investment is a program of education on disaster awareness and
preparedness. Such a
program should be the first responsibility of civil defense officials
in each country.
There are regions where collaboration does not seem to have produced
results, as in Caribbean,
where the United States, France and Great Britain have a stake (a lot
to lose...)
That's true, in the Caribbean the problem is somewhat different and
more complex. Not only
there is a risk of tsunami of seismic origin, but there is also the
risk of tsunamis from volcanic
eruptions and from massive collapses of volcanic flanks - as for
example the recent tsunamis on
Montserrat Island from the eruption and flank collapses of the
Soufriere Hills volcano.
Establishing of a Tsunami Warning System there is difficult and can be
expensive. However, it is
necessary because if a tsunami occurs again in the same region of the
Puerto Rico Trench - as it
did in 1865 (correct date is 1867) and 1918, numerous densely populated
islands in the region
will be devastated as , for example, Puerto - Rico or the
American and British Virgin isles.
Let us not overlook the impact that a tsunami would have on a cruise
ship in the harbor. It
could possibly overturn it. Also imagine what could happen to the
thousands of tourist and
what impact it would have on the economy of this area. ......
People seem to have a very short
memory of disasters..... They always wait until after a
catastrophe - like the one that occurred
on Sunday - to take a some plan of action....
c2004 Liberation