The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was an event which occurred on the 26th of December 2004, one with a wide impact zone all around the Indian Ocean. It was caused by an enormous earthquake on the western side of the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia. The earthquake then triggered a tsunami around the Indian Ocean. As one might expect, given the location of the earthquake, this struck the coastal regions of Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia and western Thailand quite badly. It gives an indication of how catastrophic the incident was that it also had an enormous impact on Sri Lanka, over 2,000 kilometers away from the epicenter of the earthquake. Eastern India was also badly affected, as were places as far afield as the Maldives and even parts of eastern Africa such as Somalia. The earthquake and tsunami killed over 227,000 people and is the most destructive natural disaster of the twenty-first century so far.[1]
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2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami chronology of events
A huge proportion of the devastation that occurred on the 26th of December 2004 throughout the rim of the Indian Ocean was inflicted by the tsunami waves that struck coastal regions as far afield as Somalia in the west and Thailand in the east. But none of this would have occurred if it had not been for the earthquake which occurred off the western coast of the island of Sumatra right before 8am that morning. This occurred along the meeting point of the Indian and Burma tectonic plates. The quake measured around a 9.1 magnitude and was extremely powerful, releasing energy equivalent to around 23,000 Hiroshima-style nuclear weapons. Much of the destruction which occurred in Aceh province on the northern side of the island of Sumatra, where nearly three-quarters of the fatalities would occur, was the result of both the tsunami and the earthquake.[2]
The earthquake would have been destructive in and of itself, yet it was augmented in the hours that followed by tsunami waves spreading out around the Indian Ocean and striking coastal regions in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India and even as far afield as various points in eastern Africa and southern Arabia. The size and strength of the tsunami depended on how close it was to the epicenter of the earthquake. For instance, on the western side of Sumatra, the closest region to the epicenter, the waves reached heights of fifty meters when they reached land and managed to travel nearly five kilometers inland in places, such was the velocity with which they struck the coastal regions.[3]
Elsewhere the impact was less severe, though dramatic all the same. Much of the coastal region of western Thailand, for instance, saw waves 25 meters tall or more. Further west they were still as much as ten or more meters high. Even in Somalia, on the other side of the Indian Ocean and around 5,000 kilometers away, waves of seven or eight meters in height were recorded in some places. It wasn’t simply that the waves were tall. They were also incredibly powerful. They travelled across the Indian Ocean at speeds of up to 500 miles or 800 kilometers per hour. As such, the tsunami’s impact was not unlike being hit by a skyscraper travelling at the speed of a jet.[4]
Death toll from the earthquake and tsunami
The foremost demographic impact, beyond the migration and displacement which followed, was in terms of the death toll. Indonesia was the worst affected country, a result of the island of Sumatra being impacted on by both the earthquake and the tsunami that it triggered, while most other regions only experienced the tsunami. Of the more than 227,000 people killed in the disaster, approximately 166,000 lost their lives in Indonesia, mostly in Aceh province on the northern side of Sumatra. About 5,400 people lost their lives in western Thailand. Curiously, although it was much further away from the earthquake impact zone than Thailand, Sri Lanka experienced a much higher death toll, such was the manner in which the tsunami struck the eastern side of the island. Upwards of 40,000 people lost their lives here. The figure is still disputed. Over 16,000 died in India. These were the countries with the highest death tolls. Hundreds more died in Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya and even in South Africa.[5]
Displacement and migration caused by the earthquake and tsunami
The loss of life from the earthquake and tsunami was huge: approximately one in every 28,000 people on earth died. Yet the destruction went well beyond this. 139,000 homes were destroyed, 74,000 hectares of agriculture land was decimated, over 2,500 kilometers of road was washed away and 3,400 schools, 119 bridges, 669 government buildings, over 500 hospitals and health facilities, 500 religious sites and even eight airports and airstrips were ruined.[6]
About 1.5 million people were displaced, either because their homes had been destroyed or their livelihoods had been taken from them. Many people ended up migrating away from the impact sites, either temporarily or permanently. The greatest impact in this respect was Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, the population of which fell by about a quarter of a million overall between deaths and migration. Other regions such as western Thailand also experienced a substantial population drop as a result of the decimation of the tourist industry which sustained so much of the local economy in these regions. Hence, while the earthquake and tsunami occurred over just a few hours on the 26th of December 2005, the wider impact was felt for months or even years around certain parts of the rim of the Indian Ocean.[7]
Explore more about the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
- The 2004 Tsunami at History
- Indian Ocean Tsunami: Then and Now at BBC News
- Ten Years Since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami at The Atlantic
References
- ↑ https://www.history.com/news/deadliest-tsunami-2004-indian-ocean
- ↑ https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2004-indian-ocean-earthquake-tsunami-facts
- ↑ https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/2004tsu_max
- ↑ https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2004-indian-ocean-earthquake-tsunami-facts
- ↑ https://apnews.com/general-news-4bf54ae8134a47718e8314e883b8074c
- ↑ https://recovery.preventionweb.net/collections/recovery-collection-2004-indian-ocean-earthquake-and-tsunami
- ↑ https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/EID14/EID14015FU1.pdf