It has been 20 years since the Boxing Day Tsunami.
Over 220,000 people sadly lost their lives.
Understanding these catastrophic events is important in disaster management.
Unfortunately, predicting earthquakes is hard, but monitoring can help with early warning systems which can save thousands of lives.
The 2004 tsunami was triggered by a massive undersea earthquake along the Sunda megathrust (a fault line), where the Indian Tectonic Plate is moving beneath the Burma Plate.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1-9.3, making it one of the largest ever recorded.
Although magnitude is a huge factor in determining damage, other things such as preparedness, infrastructure, and population density is just as important to consider.
The earthquake caused a sudden vertical displacement of the seafloor by several meters and the entire water column from seafloor to surface was lifted up.
I read 30 cubic kilometres of water was displaced, which is hard to comprehend really for my small brain.
This displaced water spread out and created the tsunami waves which were relatively low in height (less than a meter) but traveled at high speeds (up to 800 km/h).
As the waves approached shallower coastal waters, their speed decreased but their height increased dramatically due to a process called wave shoaling (the change in shape and behaviour as waves propagate into water of decreasing depth).
Although a huge tragedy, this event led to significant improvements in tsunami warning systems and coastal disaster preparedness throughout the Indian Ocean region.
Read more about the events that took place on and after the catastrophe:
Early Warning Systems and Communication Pathways are vital. But here is a first hand account of the events that led to the difficult lesson on communication.
There was some hope after the disaster - but maybe it was a way to deal with the trauma. Read about the Baby Boom which followed the event.
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