ISBN 978-111111111-3
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SUNAMIS HIS CENTURY THREAT A tsunami is a series of waves caused by earthquakes or undersea volcanic eruptions. On September 29, 2009, a tsunami caused 4 de 18substantial damage and loss of life in American Samoa, Samoa, and Tonga. The tsunami was generated by a large earthquake in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. Out in the depths of the ocean, tsunami waves do not dramatically increase in height. But as the waves travel inland, they build up to higher and higher heights as the depth of the ocean decreases. The speed of tsunami waves depends on ocean depth rather than the distance from the source of the wave. Tsunami waves may travel as fast as jet planes over deep waters, only slowing down when reaching shallow waters. While tsunamis are often referred to as tidal waves, this name is discouraged by oceanographers because tides have little to do with these giant waves.
Meaning of ‘Tsunami’ The term ‘Tsunami’ is a Japanese term which means “harbour wave”. A tsunami is a series of giant waves caused by earthquakes or undersea volcanic eruptions and underwater landslides. Tsunami waves can travel at the speed of 800 km/hour and its height can be 20 feet to 300 feet. The speed of tsunami waves depends on depth of the ocean . The speed of tsunami is fast in deep water while slow down when reaching shallow waters. Worth to mention that around 80% of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean.
“Tsunamis are rare but extremely deadly waves. In the past 100 years, 58 tsunami incidents have claimed more than 2.6 lac lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster. These death tolls have made a tsunami as the most dangerous natural disaster”. The deadliest Tsunami ever was recorded in the Indian Ocean in December 2004. It caused an estimated 2.27 lac deaths in 14 countries including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. History of World Tsunami Awareness Day After the 2004 deadliest
Tsunami in the Indian Ocean; The United Nations General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day from December 2015. The basic motive of this day is to increase the awareness about the Tsunami among over 700 million people live in low-lying coastal areas and Small Islands.
How Does a Tsunami Kill You? I think we, as humans, often forget the sheer power of the world in which we live. Most of our psychology has evolved to see the world in ways that may not be accurate. We adapt mental safety nets that let us believe in, or augment things that help us function better in our life. A sense of control, for example. I usually feel like I have some control over my life, or like my environment is a product of myself. It’s the way I want it, because it’s passive, and allows itself to be shaped by me. We get a false sense of security living in a secure civilization, never really experiencing something that is utterly beyond our control. But there are things beyond our control. Things which carry energy so powerful, our minds can hardly comprehend it.
The Strength of Nature The earth can produce forces which, if it’s put into numbers, our brains couldn’t really understand. The numbers behind such forces of nature exist beyond our meaningful understanding. Our physical bodies, in comparison to those forces of nature, have virtually zero weight and resistance. If that energy was converted into a mathematical equation, our human body wouldn’t even be a rounding error. We would be statistically insignificant. Luckily, most of us never need to endure such immense power. We might feel a strong wind, or a large wave at the beach might throw us like a rag doll. Some of us, heaven forbid, might experience a car accident. Then, we would get a small sense of what its like to be acted upon without our choice; to be utterly passive. But, every so often, a small group of humans stands witness to the raw forces of nature that come to pass. They become the few who truly realize that nature doesn’t live alongside us. We live in nature. Our existence, and everything we’ve ever achieved, can be wiped away in a matter of minutes. And it’s as if we were never there to begin with.
The Force of a Tsunami The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean was one of the most murderous natural phenomena in all of human history. The earthquake which caused it was the third strongest earthquake ever recorded. The tsunami itself is nearly in the top ten deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Of all natural disasters we even know about, this tsunami is one of the deadliest. I doubt many people appreciate the scale of what happened in 2004. Look at the graph below.
The force of the 2004 earthquake is 12% of the energy produced by all the earthquakes of the 20th century. There were over 10,000 “strong” earthquakes in those 100 years, and our Indian Ocean earthquake was more than ten percent of the force of all of them put together.
The death toll was astronomical. 230,000 people died in the tsunami. In comparison, 28,000 people died in the Japanese tsunami in 2011. That’s 28
The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean was one of the most murderous natural phenomena in all of human history. The earthquake which caused it was the third strongest earthquake ever recorded. The tsunami itself is nearly in the top ten deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. thousand, compared to two hundred and thirty thousand. 230,000 people simply do not die in the span of hours. These numbers are only ever seen in wartime, and they’re exacted over months, or years. Mankind’s best efforts to cause as much destruction as we’re capable is easily rivaled by a fraction of the energy earth can produce.
How Does a Tsunami Work? Tsunamis have three main causes: submarine landslides, earthquakes, or underwater volcanic eruptions. These displace a massive amount of water. The water moves up above the surface, and gravity pulls it back down. The energy from this causes ripples that move outward in a circle. A tsunami isn’t one wave, it’s a chain of waves. Think about the ripples in a pond. And even worse, the first wave isn’t the deadliest. They only get stronger as the later waves move onto land. Tsunamis are harmless for 95% of their life. The energy of the tsunami runs through the entire depth of the ocean. It only becomes deadly when the ocean floor becomes shallow, and all that energy compresses into a smaller amount of water. Tsunamis move at the speed of a commercial airliner (about 500mph). As the ocean floor becomes shallower, they slow down, and increase in height. On land, they move at the speed of a car (20-30mph).
The Energy Behind the Tsunami Some lunatics claimed that if someone detonates an atomic bomb under the ocean surface you can cause a tsunami. One atomic bomb? The 2004 earthquake produced a force equivalent to 450,000 kilotons of TNT, or 23,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. See all those zeros?
The earthquake also happened in a very shallow part of the ocean, and very close to the coast of Indonesia. Every condition needed for utter destruction had already been satisfied.
1900 - 2015: TSUNAMIS A NIVEL MUNDIAL Tsunamis have been ocurred for many centuries but the human being has record of them since 1900, with the firsts Tsunamis in Tonga, Greece and Ecuador and Colombia. Along the years have been many tsunamis as we show in this graphic. Take a look and amaze yourself!
2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
AFTER BEFORE
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a series of tsunamis on 26 December 2004, killing approximately 227,898 people (167,540 in Indonesia alone), making it the deadliest tsunami and one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
The earthquake was the third largest earthquake in recorded history. The initial surge was measured at a height of approximately 33 meters, making it the largest earthquake-generated tsunami in recorded history. The tsunami killed people from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand, and the north-west coast of Malaysia, to thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and as far away as Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania.
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by an earthquake that had the equivalent energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over 230,000. Here are the important facts about the natural calamity. The magnitude of the earthquake had been estimated at 9.1 on the Richter Scale. This was one of the highest ratings the Richter Scale had ever shown in recent history.
In light of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, UNESCO and other world bodies have called for an international tsunami monitoring system.
The earthquake hit Earth's surface at around 160 kilometres west from northern Sumatra, Indonesia.
Facts about the with the power of 23,000 atomic bombs
The two tectonic plates under the Indian Ocean, the Indian Plate and the Burma Plate, collided at the Sunda Trench creating the highest magnitude earthquake in 40 years, which triggered the tsunami.
“This trans-Indian Ocean tsunami is an example of a teletsunami, which travels vast distances across the open ocean, and an ocean-wide tsunami. It became known as the "Boxing Day Tsunami" because it struck on Boxing Day (26 December)�.
Unlike in the Pacific Ocean, there was no organized alert service covering the Indian Ocean. This was in part due to the absence of major tsunami events since 1883
Indonesia, a country that lies between the Pacific Ring of Fire, was affected the worst. Around 167,000 people were estimated to be dead while more than 500,000 houses were washed away. The Indian Ocean more than 5,000 coast of Africa sufficient force to property.
tsunami waves travelled kilometres to the East and still arrived with kill people and destroy
The tsunami not only took a lof of lives, it also damaged the environment along the Indian Ocean belt. In the Maldives, 16 to 17 coral reef were left completely without fresh water as salt water polluted the area, which could be rendered uninhabitable for decades.
2009: Saoa. A Tsunami of Deadly Proportions On September 29, 2009 a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck midway between Samoa and American Samoa, a U.S. territory. The earthquake generated tsunami waves of up to 22 meters that engulfed the shores, killing at least 192 people; 149 in Samoa, 34 in American Samoa, and 9 in Niuatoputapu, Tonga. The devastation extended beyond human casualties with houses destroyed, cars swept out to sea and some villages being virtually annihilated. With over $200 million dollars in damages, the islands were ravaged both physically and economically. With over 30 deaths in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, the 2009 event caused the largest number of deaths in America due to a tsunami in the 21st Century. The earthquake was felt in American Samoa for up to 3 minutes, giving emergency responders, local government officials, and the public time to respond to natural warning signs because they understood the threat.
The deadly 2009 tsunami was triggered by at least two separate earthquakes occurring within 2–3 minutes of each other near the Tonga Trench, one of the most seismically active areas in the world. This is an extremely rare event, known as a “doublet.” Since the 2009 tsunami, Samoa has taken many preparedness measures: •
Thanks to education and outreach efforts held over the summer and fall of 2009, many organizations and individuals knew the signs of an impending tsunami and had developed tsunami evacuation plans.
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Similar to American Samoa, knowledge of the threat and recognition of a tsunami’s natural warning signs saved many lives in Samoa.
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Established a 24/7 National Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Center and built an Emergency Operations Center to support disasters Upgraded its warning dissemination systems to include island-wide sirens and SMS to essential village and national representatives, churches, schools, NGOs, and the private sector. Created community-driven evacuation maps and
signage.
INTERVIEW TO WALTER DUDLEY, EXPERT IN TSUNAMIS The Marine Center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo is one of the world’s leading sites for tsunami research. Hilo area suffered great losses in 1946 and again in 1960 when it was inundated by tsunamis generated by ocean-floor earthquakes thousands of kilometers away. The deaths and damage caused by the 1946 disaster prompted scientists to develop an elaborate regional warning system, which has been credited with saving many lives. Walter Dudley is a professor of oceanography and director of the Marine Center. He is also the author of Tsunami!, a book about tidal waves. We have interviewed him: WWWE: How can you monitor a tsunami? Walter Dudley: That’s an area that’s already in very good shape. If you declare tsunami warnings every time there was an earthquake, you’d have system that very quickly would be ignored by the public because, fortunately, most earthquakes don’t generate tsunamis. So it´s really important to confirm that waves have actually been generated. The way the system works in the Pacific is there are really two parts. There are tide gauges, which sit in harbors. And those are not really great at accurately measuring the tsunami potential, but they would certainly show if something unusual was going on. But the newest part of the system are sea-floor gauges. And there are now gauges off the Aleutian Islands down the west coast, Central America, South America, and the Japanese have some of their own. And they sit on the ocean floor in very deep water and measure the actual tsunami waves going over head. And they transmit that information to a buoy on the surface which transmits it to a satellite. So these tsunami measurements can be measured at sea and that gives us a much better idea of what’s headed towards some coastal nation. WWWE: It’s my understanding that an earthquake took place two and a half hours before the tsunami hit. Is that correct? WD: It depends how far away people are from the earthquake. My understanding is that most of the hardest hit areas were about two hours away. WWWE: Two hours sounds like a fairly long enough time to be warned. WD: If there were a warning system in place, they could have gotten out at least
If you’re at the coast and you see the water either, for no apparent reason, seriously withdrawing or coming in, then that’s an indication that something unusual and potentially very deadly is about to occur. Also, if you’re at the coast and you feel an earthquake or were to witness a landslide, those are things that would be an indicator that there is tsunami potential there.
some warning. There’s a second part of this problem and that’s one we still face in the Pacific. And that is public understanding of the tsunami threat. Most people really don’t understand what the phenomenon is. They have these images from movies that there’s one giant wave and it’s like a surfing wave and it’s not. It’s a series of waves that can last over a period of hours. It’s more like a coastal flood. There’s no weather indication, it doesn’t start raining, or have hurricane winds or anything like that. It can be a beautiful, sunny day at the beach. People need to understand how dangerous the threat is, they need to understand what the warnings mean and they need to recognize the natural signs of a tsunami. Because the areas that are half an hour or an hour away may never have a chance for adequate warning. But if people along the coast recognize initial signs from nature, they might have a chance to save their lives.
WWWE:: What are some of the signs that the ordinary person could recognize? WD: If you’re at the coast and you see the water either, for no apparent reason, seriously withdrawing or coming in, then that’s an indication that something unusual and potentially very deadly is about to occur. Also, if you’re at the coast and you feel an earthquake or were to witness a landslide, those are things that would be an indicator that there is tsunami potential there. WWWE:: What is your region doing as far as outreach to help victims of the current tsunami? WD: The state of Hawaii has been very active in terms of tsunami prevention and education. I know the International Tsunami Information Center [in Honolulu] works regularly with different nations. Looking at the past, after the 1960 tsunami, there were a lot of nations that were struck by that tsunami who weren’t members of the warning system who soon joined up. And I expect that will be the case now. That nations that previously had no real tsunami threat, in spite of the fact that there had been historical information that those regions had been hit by tsunamis, it hadn’t been in recent years, say a half a century. So now I think they will feel the urgency of the situation and become members of the warning system and that will indeed help in the future.
TSUNAMI CLASSIFICATION For practical purposes, to take preventive measures against a tsunami warning, tsunamis of seismic origin are classified into local, regional and distant or transoceanic.
Local tsunamis:
Inundation is confined along the coast in the earthquake zone and at distances of 100 km near the earthquake zone.
Regional Tsunamis:
They are capable of causing destruction at distances of 1,000 km from the generating region within 2 to 3 hours of their origin.
Faraway Tsunamis: Faraway or transoceanic tsunamis are those that originate in the western margin of the Pacific Ocean and take between 8 and 12 hours to reach our coasts. Tsunamis of distant origin for Mexico can cause considerable damage when the earthquake that originates them is of great magnitude (M 9 to 9.5).
HOW TO DETECT A TSUNAMI Tsunamis are detected by open-ocean buoys and coastal tide gauges, which report information to stations within the region. Tide stations measure minute changes in sea level, and seismograph stations record earthquake activity. A tsunami watch goes into effect if a center detects an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or higher. Civil defense agencies are then notified, and data from tidal gauge stations are closely monitored. If a threatening tsunami passes through and sets off the gauge stations, a tsunami warning issues to all potentially affected areas. Evacuation procedures in these areas are then implemented. The Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) uses unique pressure recorders that sit on the ocean bottom. These recorders are used to detect slight changes in the overlying water pressure. The DART system can detect a tsunami as small as a centimeter high above the sea level.
Tsunami Warning Safety Measures 1.- Stay away from low-lying and more dangerous coastal areas such as beaches. Not all earthquakes generate tsunamis, if you receive a tsunami warning or feel a strong earthquake that makes it difficult for you to stand up, the earthquake itself is the warning: stay away from beaches and low lying coastal areas.
2 . - Tr y t o s t a y a w a y f r o m dangerous areas while the warning lasts. Stay away from rivers or streams. If you are in low areas such as river deltas or sand bars and do not have time to reach a safe place on the hill, find a building and climb to the highest floor.
3. Be careful of changes in sea level. If the sea level rises or falls suddenly and the seabed is exposed, this is the natural sign of an impending tsunami. Do not go to explore the seabed, move
away from the beach immediately.
4.-Never go to the beach to observe a tsunami. You will not be able to escape and it may be the last thing you see. In a few minutes the tsunami begins to flood with great speed, moving inland faster than a person can run. Do not use your car, leave on foot, there may be roads blocked by traffic congestion.
collide with each other. Boats swept away by the Japanese tsunami.
6.- Watch for news on radio and television during a tsunami warning. These indications can save your life. Experience indicates that the victims of tsunamis have mostly been people who ignored tsunami warnings.
On December 26, 2004, a tourist observed the retreat of the sea before the tsunami waves returned within minutes to flood the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
7. Avoid panic in the event of an evacuation and cooperate with authorities regarding the directions they provide for escape to safety.
5.- In the open sea, far from the coast, the tsunami waves are not destructive to boats.
8. In places where the time to evacuate to higher ground is not sufficient, you should take refuge in tall buildings, making sure that doors and windows are open for the free circulation of water and that the structure is not affected.
If you are sailing in a boat and feel a strong earthquake or receive a tsunami warning, do not return to port. Although tsunami waves sometimes pose no danger of flooding, they do generate very strong currents at the entrance to harbors and boats inside the harbor
Interview to María Belón, survivor from 2004’s tsunami We have intervied to Maria Belón, a survivor of the gigantic tsunami from 2004. What this woman has overcome would not fit into even 100 magazines. Her story is so big that one day J. Bayona decided to turn it into a film, one of the most successful films in spanish cinema. María Belón was lucky enough to be able to tell about it. This is her story. WWTW: Well, first of all, we find it incredible to have you here after knowing your story through the media and having reflected it in that movie "The Impossible". How would you tell your story? María Belon: Well, I have an impressive film about my story, made with an absolute truthfulness, beauty and honesty. But there is more behind those scenes, because I have in mind how each detail was, what I do everyday is to remind myself the learning that took place in each of those scenes, those moments and the gift that the tsunami gave me. WWTW: I´ve heard in one of your interviews that you say the tsunami was a gift for you, right? MB: A gift.
All the family with the actors of the movie
WWTW: Sounds weird. MB: It may sounds weird and I didn't understand it before either. The experience was very painful, especially for the losses that occurred. It was very hard but in our case if you see the movie, nothing happened to us, we were very lucky. A situation like this shake you up, put you back in your life, really without excuses and that is a gift. If you take it like that. WWTW:Maria, what happened to you that day during the catastrophe, what do you remember about that day? MB: What I remember is a lot of confusion, a lot of anguish, a lot of pain. Now what I have left are scars, scars that remind me that this has already happened and what It remains is life.
WWTW: What was the worst moment you had to go through? MB: The worst moment was when I got out of the water, when I got out and said shit, I'm alive, I'm alone. At that moment, besides being surrounded by corpses, I knew that my family was dead but that lasted seconds until I saw Lucas’ head, my son, I thought it was a mirage but no, it was real. WWTW: What was it like when you met your family? It was exactly like you see in the movie, it was a miracle. WWTW:How do you overcome a trauma like that? I don't know what the word "overcome" is, it's a word they always say in a hundred thousand interviews, it makes me very nervous. What is to overcome? I have no idea what it is to overcome. If overcoming is forgetting, I don't want to overcome, if overcoming is being able to smile again, then of course I want to overcome.
