Wave of Destruction

REMEMBERING THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

way the oceans took all that they had was how a predator might pounce on its unsuspecting prey. As waters along the Phuket coastline receded, exposing rock pools and floundering fish, tourists and locals alike flocked to marvel at this curious phenomenon. A natural disaster was probably the last thing on their minds, especially on the day after Christmas. By the time mountainous waves loomed over the horizon, it was already too late to run.

With five million people affected, 230,000 lives taken and 1.7 million people displaced, the tsunami that ravaged coastlines of the Indian Ocean in 2004 is the deadliest in recorded history. Today, it might be hard to comprehend how warning signs of an earthquake and receding seas were ignored, but tsunamis have been historically more common within the Pacific Ocean rather than the Indian Ocean because of the conditions under which they occur.

Arising from a sudden displacement of water, they are triggered by undersea megathrust earthquakes wherein there is vertical tectonic movement; this occurs at convergent plate tectonic boundaries where one plate is subducted under another. While tectonic earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, such earthquakes are rare. In the case of the 2004 tsunami, whose epicentre lies off the western Sumatran coast, a rupture along boundaries of the Indian Plate and the overriding Burma Plate caused a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and displaced massive amounts of water that travelled at speeds over 800 km/h.

The sheer amount of energy released – 23,000 times what was contained in the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima – resulted in damage to countries as far-flung as South Africa.

People say that time heals wounds. It is perhaps so, as coastal communities in Indonesia and Sri Lanka have been rebuilt from scratch. A tsunami warning system has also since been installed for the Indian Ocean, although it has yet to be truly tested. But repercussions of the Boxing Day Tsunami continue to affect victims and survivors up to this day – while we may remember the event best in newspaper clippings, for them, daily life is a reminder of the nightmare that they lived through twelve years back. ag

Arrival times of the tsunami in hours

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