2004 Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami
The largest and deadliest earthquake of the 21st century that shook the whole world.
Earthquakes are some of the most formidable and damaging natural disasters. Due to the nature of earthquakes being sudden it means that they are hard to predict. This means they can cause huge amounts of damage to infrastructure and deaths if they are to happen in or close to major populated areas.
What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is defined as the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. When the stresses acting upon the crust exceed the strength of the rock, it breaks along a lines of weakness known as a fault plane which are the main causes of earthquakes across the globe.
Different diagrams showing how earthquakes can occur.
The Boxing day earthquake that shook the world
The Indian Ocean earthquake, a 9.1-9.3 magnitude earthquake, making it the in the top four largest earthquakes since 1900, that occurred on the 26th December 2004 at 00:58:53 UTC and 07:58:53 local time.
2004 earthquake epicenter
The epicenter of the earthquake was located at Latitude 3.295 and Longitude 95.982 at a depth of 30km below the mean sea level of the region, just North of Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake was followed by a large Tsunami waves that stretched across a large amount of the Southern hemisphere and affected 18 countries across Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and Australia and its territories through the displacement of 30km^2 of water in the Indian Ocean.
How the M9.1-9.3 earthquake occurred
The earthquake has been found to have been caused by a convergent plate boundary caused by a more dense Oceanic plate subducting underneath a lighter continental plate at the aforementioned convergent plate boundary. This process occurred at the India plate which subducted itself under the Burma micro-plate which is connected with the larger Sunda plate.
Diagram showing the India plate boundary with the Burma micro-plate and Sunda plate
Earthquake maps
< 2 weeks prior
A small series of 4 earthquakes occur within the 2 weeks prior to the main event averaging a M4.4 along the vicinity of the Sumatra, Indonesia. This could imply that these smaller earthquakes were foreshocks to the Boxing day Earthquake.
The day of the M9.1-9.3 Magnitude earthquake
The day started with the largest earthquake seen this century at 7:59AM local time. This was then followed by a series of 147 earthquakes reaching magnitude of up to 8.0 over the remainder of the day. These are known as aftershocks which continued adding to the damage within the area and displacement of more water within the Indian ocean.
The devastating Tsunami
The resulting tsunami caused by the earthquake reached areas as far away as South America with serious damage to areas along the East coast of Arica, Western Australia and a lot of South Eastern Asia.
Legend for Tsunami map
Aftershocks of the earthquake over the next 365 days
A total of 2520 earthquakes followed the events of the Boxing day earthquake over the next year. These earthquakes ranged from magnitude 3 all the way up to magnitude 8 and continued to put stress upon the regions within the 'danger zone' further worried about further tsunami and earthquake problems in the area.
Tsunami Animation: Sumatra, 2004
Damage to the world
Indonesia / Sumatra
The first area to feel the aftershocks of the Earthquake with the resulting Tsunami hitting the coast within 15 minutes of the earthquake.
Approximately 165,945 people died or remained missing in Indonesia as a result of the earthquake and tsunami with a further 572,926 remaining displaced (IDPs) due to the event. A total of $5.5bn damage was done to Indonesia due to the event.
Malaysia
Although its proximity to the epicenter of the earthquake Malaysia was subject to the effects of the earthquake to a much lesser extent. One family considers itself very lucky when being compared to the rest of the affected countries with his daughter being able to 'float to safety' and being brandished the miracle baby. Stories like these are said to have given people hope about finding there own loved ones across the affected regions.
A total of 69 people died due results of the earthquake with a further 8000 remaining as IDPs across the country with Penang suffering the worst of the effects in country.
Thailand
Within 2 hours of the tectonic event Thailand had been affected by the resulting Tsunami. Thailand was one of the worse hit countries with a total of around 5395 people passing away due to the event, 6000 IDPs and a relatively small cost of recovery costing $500m which is significantly less than other hard hit countries.
Myanmar
Towards the North of the Bay of Bengal where the tsunami waves were now travelling lays Myanmar, the lowest affected country around the Bay area. Although reports also suggest that the damage and casualties have been lowered by the Myanmar government. This has been suggested that the official reports say that instead of a suggested 90 people dying in Myanmar there is believed to be between 400 and 600.
This could be argued with many recreations and projections showing Myanmar as being one of the worst hit countries within a couple of hours and up to 48 hours after the earthquake occurred.
India
India reported loss of life of around 12405 individuals across 6 different hard hit areas within the country.
Through a report made by the Indian prime minister at the time Manmohan Singh, it was reported that the disaster was unprecedented in the intensity, magnitude and spread which extended from the North Eastern coast down to the Southern coast of India.
It was also reported that numerous amounts of damage was done to infrastructure with around $2.1bn worth of damage done to infrastructure across the country. A huge 730,000 IDPs were reported across the country, making it the highest proportion of people displaced by the earthquake and resulting tsunami.
Sri Lanka
One of the hardest hit countries due to the tectonic event. Due to its very low level of preparedness and education on tectonic and other natural hazards.
The small size of Sri Lanka and due to the resulting Tsunami covering around 25% of the Country due to its low lying meters above sea level around a lot of the country.
Numerous tragic events such as the crash of the queen of the sea train, which was launched into the air due to the effects of the Tsunami killing most of its 1500 passengers and staff. A total of 23,231 people across the country died due to the Earthquake. Along with a total fo 516,150 IDPs across the country and a 2nd highest amount of damage with a $2.2Bn cost of recovery to the nation.
Somalia and East Africa
Eastern Africa and Somalia which is located almost 4000miles away itself had damage to its infrastructure and to its people with 164 people along the Eastern coast losing their lives and a further ~139 still missing at the time of the report. 2320 people were displaced due to the earthquakes resulting events with a cost of recovery of $0.2bn along the coast.
The countries along the coast also had alot of its clean drinking water poisoned due to the results of the flooding caused by the event. As well as the problems of exposing and rewashing to shore of radioactive waste disposed of by richer countries through the Somalian government. This resulted in the sickness of a large amount of the population at the countries populated areas around the coast.
Indonesia - case study
As Indonesia was the closest country to the earthquake it means Indonesia was the worst hit of any country due to the earthquake and the following tsunami. The earthquake is said to have released energy equivalent to 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs affecting Northern parts of Sumatra itself before causing the tsunami. The earthquake was also so significantly large that caused a shift in the earth's mass that has changed the Earth's rotation.
In the Aceh region of Indonesia, tsunami waves topped 100 feet and travelled at 500mph.
A map showing elevation of land that was lower than the biggest waves that hit Indonesia and how far the flooding from the tsunami could've affected if it was at its worst along the whole coast line in the Aceh region, Indonesia.
Aftermath within Indonesia
The worst affected areas within the country were the Western coast of Aceh, which was located around 60miles from the epicenter of the earthquake and suffered damage stretching from the southern more area of Tapaktuan up the the Northern area and the capital of the region, Banda Aceh.
Flooding due to the Tsunami in Indonesia
The mortality rate of the tectonic event reached tolls of up to 80% in some STAR studied communities after the event. With many more factors coming into the overall survivability through these STAR communities. The research found that in most highly affected areas around the coastline around 25% of the population perished. This also follows the mortality rate of women and children being at a higher rate than 'prime age' men, where household composition also played a role in survival. This states that women aged 15-44 and children were more likely to survive if there was a man in the household. Relationships also showed a tight link with husband and wives and mothers and children's survival being at a higher rate.
Loss of infrastructure within the communities affected by the tsunamis and earthquakes were enormous with roads and buildings being inundated, with a lot of buildings falling into sea water crumbling from both the pressure of waves and the earthquake. Following this there was a mass migration of nearly two thirds of the population of severely damaged communities changing residences following the year after the event.
Mitigation in Indonesia since the event
In order to combat future tragedies from earthquakes and tsunami events within the region numerous different methods have been set up in order to combat the peril that the 2004 event caused. Since the event numerous studies have undergone to gauge community preparedness, education and emergency procedures around large scale tectonic events and the aftermaths of these events.
Interviews and research done on groups around the susceptible areas of Indonesia have gauged a public understanding of tsunamis and when to expect them to come. The vast majority understand that tsunamis and earthquakes are usually linked hand-in-hand and majority of tsunamis within the area are earthquake generated. These same individuals are now much more likely to know indications of tsunamis through living through the 2004 event and better education systems with 88% realizing receding seawaters are an indicator of an impending event. Along this 85% realize that there is a 'roaring' from the sea preceding an event and 52% realize change in animal behaviors before an event.
The community are well aware of how to spot a tsunami and can understand the severity they can cause in terms of loss of life, damage to settlements along with the loss of livelihood. Most places along the 2004 affected areas, 95%, have set up designated assembly areas and routes incase of future events to shelters for survival. These shelters are all within a close vicinity to the possibly vulnerable regions throughout Indonesia strategically placed in the hills. One more preparedness method the communities have is through just over 40% of the local population participating in faux evacuation drills in order to prepare for if there was a real event by knowing possible evacuation routes. 25% of the population have also prepared 'go bags' for their families.
It was found that a lot of tsunami preparedness plans and information about how they can prepare and how to spot the risks of these events were done through multiple different means. A lot of the education has come through governmental means such as informational videos and posters detailing what to do in a tectonic event and what it may cause afterwards, these are strategically placed in local hotspots such as coffee shops. Many of the people who live in these areas and lived through the 2004 event have shared with families and friends how to survive following one of these tragic events and how to mitigate damage to life. A large amount of the community, around one third have gained information on tsunamis through social media platforms supplying information on survival against a large tragic event.
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