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Background: An earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale of the West Coast on Northern Sumatra set off a
series of other earthquakes lasting 12 hours on the 26th of December (from 00:58 to 11:05 UTC), 2004 led to
widespread catastrophe particularly in Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Indonesia and Thailand with damage also in
Malaysia, Bangladesh, Somalia and Seychelles.
Doc 1: Asia quake death toll tops 13,000
CHENNAI, India (CNN) -- As dawn broke Monday across the Bay of Bengal, countries struck by tsunamis in
the wake of the most powerful earthquake the planet has seen in 40 years focused on relief and rescue efforts,
and said the death toll from the giant waves -- already more than 13,000 -- is expected to rise further.
The tsunamis also left thousands injured, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless in Indonesia, India,
Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Some of the tsunamis reached as far as 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake,
which was located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island at a depth of about 10
kilometers (6.2 miles).
The quake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday (midnight GMT Saturday), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National
Earthquake Center.
It is the fourth-largest earthquake since such measurements began in 1899, according to the NEIC, tying with a 1952
quake in Kamchatka, Russia.
More than 4,500 people have been reported dead in Sri Lanka. Most of them, authorities said, were in the eastern
district of Batticaloa. Thousands were missing and more than a half million displaced.
In southern Sri Lanka, 200 prisoners escaped when the waves swept away a high-security prison in Matara.
Witnesses in the eastern Sri Lankan port city Trincomalee reported 14 meter (40-foot) waves hitting inland as far as a
kilometer (0.6 miles).
The Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency, and, along with the government of the Maldives, has
requested international assistance, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.
The United Nations has warned of epidemics within days unless health systems in the affected areas can cope.
"This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas
... so many vulnerable communities," the U.N.'s Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told CNN. (Full story)
As the sun rose, 20,000 Sri Lankan soldiers and naval personnel launched relief and rescue efforts. India sent six
warships, carrying supplies, along with helicopters.
Priorities including identifying the hardest-hit areas and air-dropping supplies, along with shepherding stranded people
to safer areas.
Sri Lankan authorities imposed a curfew overnight, and many residents remained concerned about the possibility of
additional tsunamis.
The country has been in the throes of a civil war, and land mines uprooted by the waves were hampering relief efforts.
Some tourists, meanwhile, had been evacuated from the hard-hit eastern coasts to the capital, Colombo, on the west
coast and unaffected.
At first light, many Sri Lankans ventured out to scour the debris for belongings or to search for information on missing
family members.
Although India was giving aid to Sri Lanka, that country also was reeling from the aftermath of the quake and
tsunamis. India's official government news agency, Press Trust of India, said at least 4,000 Indians were killed, and
more bodies were being recovered.
A resident of Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu district -- India's hardest-hit area -- said he saw several people
being swept out to sea.
Along India's southeastern coast, several villages appeared to have been swept away, and thousands of fishermen -including 2,000 from the Chennai area alone -- who were at sea when the waves thundered ashore have not returned.
Along the coast, brick foundations were all that remained of village homes. In Tamil Nadu state, 1,725 people have
been confirmed dead, and officials feared many more died on the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, where dozens
of aftershocks were centered, but communication with the mainland was cut off.
Efforts to provide survivors with food and shelter were hampered by the overwhelming magnitude of the damage.
Thai authorities said more than 400 people are dead, and hundreds are missing.
One witness said Phuket's famed Laguna Beach resort area is "completely gone." The area provided 40 percent of
Thailand's $10 billion annual income from tourism.
Among the missing were scuba divers who had been exploring the Emerald Cave off Phuket's coast.
Phuket's airport -- which closed when its runways flooded -- reopened, but most roads in the area remained closed, as
officials tried to assess the damage.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Phuket and declared the situation "under control." He told CNN he
planned to direct rescue and relief efforts overnight.
Witnesses reported guests drowned in their hotel rooms near the coast as 10 meter (30-foot) waves washed ashore.
Others reported narrow escapes -- including a Spaniard who had been aboard a boat when the wave approached.
The captain began screaming and turned the boat directly into a nearby shore, where he beached it.
As those aboard jumped from the craft and scrambled up the steep beach, they turned back to see the waves crush their
boat, the Spaniard said.
Communication difficulties
More than 500 people have been confirmed dead in Indonesia -- many of them in Aceh, in northern Sumatra, about
160 kilometers (100 miles) from the quake's epicenter, according to local reports.
The quake also inflicted heavy damage on the area, which is a hotbed of rebel activity, before two tsunamis slammed
the coastline.
Access and communications were difficult if not impossible; the death toll remained a mystery on the west coast of
Aceh, where communications had been completely wiped out. News agencies in the country have reported more than
4,000 dead.
The tsunamis struck with no warning to those in coastal areas, as no warning system exists for the Indian Ocean, said
Eddie Bernard, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine and Environmental
Labs in Seattle.
Staffers at warning centers that cover the Pacific Basin and the U.S. West Coast were aware of the quake and the
possibility of tsunamis, said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center in Honolulu,
Hawaii.
"They were able to make contact, but they did not have the proper government officials to notify," she said. "They'll be
working on this in the future."
The earthquake is classified as "great" -- the strongest classification given by the NEIC.
NEIC geophysicist Don Blakeman said the tsunamis were triggered by the initial massive jolt.
"The damage is just phenomenal," said Jan Egelund, U.N. emergency relief coordinator. "I think we are seeing now
one of the worst natural disasters ever."
Aftershocks
There was disagreement over whether the threat was over. Waverly Person, Blakeman's colleague at NEIC, said the
tsunamis are "long over" and residents and visitors should not worry about further tsunamis.
Bernard, however, said the aftershocks are strong enough to produce more tsunamis.
One such aftershock, measuring 7.3 in magnitude, struck about 300 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Banda Aceh -on Sumatra's northernmost tip -- more than four hours after the initial quake, according to the NEIC.
The center expects the quake to produce hundreds of smaller aftershocks, under 4.6 magnitude, and thousands smaller
than that.
"A quake of this size has some pretty serious effects," Person said.
The quake represented the energy released from "a very large rupture in the earth's crust" more than 1,000 kilometers
(600 miles) long. The rupture created shock waves that pushed the water at speeds of up to several hundred kilometers
per hour.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit anywhere on Earth since March 1964, when a 9.2 quake struck near Alaska's
Prince William Sound.
The strongest recorded earthquake (and records go back to 1899) registered 9.5 on May 22, 1960, in Chile.
Sunday's quake hit a year after the 6.6-magnitude quake in Bam, Iran, which killed more than 30,000 people, injured
another 30,000 and destroyed 85 percent of the buildings in the southeastern Iran city.
-- CNN Correspondents Aneesh Raman in Phuket, Thailand, Satinder Bindra in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Atika Shubert in
Jakarta, Indonesia, and Suhasini Haidar in Chennai, India contributed to this report
Raman, Aneesh and Satinder Bindra, et. al. “Asia Quake Death Toll Tops 13,000.” CNN World. CNN, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. 14 Sept. 2010.
< http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/asia.quake/index.html?iref= allsearch>.
Doc 2: Indian Ocean Earthquake Triggers Deadly Tsunami
By Bruce Jaffe, Eric Geist, and Helen Gibbons
Dec. 2004 / Jan. 2005
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are assessing preliminary data and beginning more detailed studies of the
devastating tsunami that lashed coasts around the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. The large tsunami waves were
generated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the northwest coast of Indonesia's island of Sumatra. The earthquake
occurred on the interface between the India and Burma tectonic plates where the India plate subducts beneath the
overriding Burma plate. USGS scientists estimate that the sea floor in the vicinity of the earthquake was uplifted by
several meters. Displacement of water above the sea floor triggered the tsunami, which caused catastrophic levels of
destruction in countries around the Indian Ocean basin—even as far as the east coast of Africa—with Indonesia, Sri
Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Kenya among the
countries hardest hit. The death toll reported by the Associated Press on January 10, 2005, was more than 150,000 and
expected to rise.
The tsunami arrived in northern Sumatra approximately 1/2 hour after the earthquake, in Thailand approximately 1 1/2
to 2 hours after the earthquake, and in Sri Lanka approximately 2 to 3 hours after the earthquake. According to initial
modeling and eyewitness accounts, areas east of the earthquake rupture, or "generation area," were first affected by a
negative wave (drawdown of water and retreat from shore before a rise in water), whereas areas west of the generation
area were first affected by a positive wave (no drawdown or retreat of water before the first tsunami wave hit).
Maximum wave heights estimated from media reports are Sumatra, 10 to 15 m; Sri Lanka, 5 to 10 m; India, 5 to 6 m;
Andaman Islands, 5 m; Thailand, 3 to 5 m; and Kenya, 2 to 3 m. Some energy from the tsunami "leaked" into
adjoining oceans, producing sea-level fluctuations at many places around the world.
Jaffe, Bruce and Eric Geist, et. al. “Indian Ocean Earthquake Triggers Deadly Tsunami.” Soundwaves Monthly News Letter. USGS, 30 Dec.
2009. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. < http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2005/01/index.html>.
Doc 3: Areas Most Affected
Doc 4: Links to Animation of the Tsunami Wave Formation
animation depicting how tsunamis form: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4136289.stm
Indian Ocean tsunami animation: http://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif
Doc 5: Map of Plate Boundaries and Seismic Activity
Doc 6: Prediction of the Tsunami
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Detected the Earthquake and after 15 minutes issued a communique to Pacific
Islands saying that there shall be no threats to them and also advises that there is a Tsunami watch going on but not an
alert. 65 minutes later a second communique repeats the same information and says that there may a possibility of
a Tsunami at the epicenter.
The tragedy is that this information was not communicated to the Indian Ocean region. The NOAA officers says that
they did not have the addresses of the appropriate officials.
Doc 7: USGS: Warnings Could Have Saved Thousands in Asia - 26 December, 2004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A warning center such as those used around the Pacific could have saved most of the
thousands of people who died in Asia's earthquake and tsunamis, a U.S. Geological Survey official said on Sunday.
None of the countries most severely affected -- including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka -- had a tsunami
warning mechanism or tidal gauges to alert people to the wall of water that followed a massive earthquake, said
Waverly Person of the USGS (news - web sites) National Earthquake Information Center.
"Most of those people could have been saved if they had had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he
said.
"And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said, referring to the governments of the devastated countries.
Person also said that because large tsunamis, or seismic sea waves, are extremely rare in the Indian Ocean, people were
never taught to flee inland after they felt the tremors of an earthquake.
Tsunami warning systems and tide gauges exist around the Pacific Ocean, for the Pacific Rim as well as South
America. The United States has such warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska operated by the U.S. Geological Survey.
But none of these monitors the Indian Ocean region. The 8.9-magnitude underwater quake -- one of the most powerful
in history -- off the Indonesian island of Sumatra devastated southern Asia and triggered waves of up to 30 feet high.
DEVASTATING TSUNAMI
U.S. seismologists said it was unlikely the Indian Ocean region would be hit any time soon by a similarly devastating
tsunami because it takes an enormously strong earthquake to generate one.
"That's really what has created all of these problems -- is that the earthquake is just so massive," said Dan Blakeman, a
USGS earthquake analyst.
But Person said governments should instruct people living along the coast to move after a quake. Since a tsunami is
generated at the source of an underwater earthquake, there is usually time -- from 20 minutes to two hours -- to get
people away as it builds in the ocean. "People along the Japanese coasts, along the coasts of California -- people are
taught to move away from the coasts. But a lot of these people in the area where this occurred -- they probably had no
kind of lessons or any knowledge of tsunamis because they are so rare."
A major tsunami, a Japanese word meaning "harbor wave," occurs in the Pacific Ocean about once a decade. It is
generated by vertical movement during an earthquake and sometimes incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, according
to the Web site of the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center.
Because of the lack of monitoring mechanisms, the U.S. Geological Survey had no access to government or scientific
information in the areas affected by the latest tsunamis.
"I've been talking to our tsunami people and they have no contact with any of these nations on the tsunamis," said
Person. "We don't have anyone there. We get it from the press."
Doc : 8 Lamont Doherty Seismographs for 25th and 26th December 2004.
The earth quake location and magnitude as recorded by the US Geological Services Earth Quake Network provided the
sequence of Earthquakes with those in Red being above 6.0 in the Richter Scale.
MAG DATE UTC-TIME LAT
y/m/d h:m:s
deg deg
6.3
6.2
6.5
5.8
5.7
5.7
7.3
6.1
5.9
6.0
5.8
5.8
6.0
5.8
5.9
8.9
2004/12/26 11:05:01
2004/12/26 10:19:30
2004/12/26 09:20:01
2004/12/26 07:38:25
2004/12/26 07:07:10
2004/12/26 06:21:58
2004/12/26 04:21:26
2004/12/26 03:08:42
2004/12/26 02:59:12
2004/12/26 02:51:59
2004/12/26 02:36:06
2004/12/26 02:34:50
2004/12/26 02:22:02
2004/12/26 02:15:58
2004/12/26 01:48:47
2004/12/26 00:58:51
13.542
13.455
8.867
13.119
10.336
10.623
6.901
13.808
3.177
12.511
12.139
4.104
8.838
12.375
5.393
3.298
LON
92.877
92.791
92.382
93.051
93.756
92.323
92.952
92.974
94.259
92.592
93.011
94.184
92.532
92.509
94.423
95.779
region
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
Seismographs for 25th and 26th December 2004.
The seismographs at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, USA shows seismic
activity within the region of the quake. The first seismograph is a normal reading. The second seismograph is a reading
taken within hours of the quakes that triggered the tsunami.
Doc 9: History of South Asian Tsunami Activity
South Asian Tsunamis
Date
Location
1524
Near Dabhol, Maharashtra
02 April 1762
Arakan Coast, Myanmar
16 June 1819
Rann of Kachchh, Gujarat
31 October 1847
Great Nicobar Island
31 December 1881
Car Nicobar Island
26 August 1883
Krakatoa volcanic eruption
28 November 1945
Mekran coast, Balochistan
Major Tsunamis in South Asia
Though rare and relatively unheard of, tsunamis have
struck the shores of South Asia in the past. The
deadliest was in 1945 which originated off the
Mekran coast in Pakistan and caused deaths as far as
Mumbai. In earliest known tsunami occurred in the
Bay of Bengal in 1762, caused by an earthquake on
Myanmar's, Arakan Coast
Doc 10: Indian Ocean tsunami warning system
When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck, the only warning most people in the region had was the sight of a giant
wave heading towards them.
Unlike the Pacific, the Indian Ocean did not have a system to alert residents of coastal areas that a tsunami was
imminent.
In the aftermath of the disaster, scientists and governments, under the auspices of the UN, began working on an early
warning system for the region.
One year on from the tsunami, this is a guide to what is planned and what is already in place.
DETECTING A TSUNAMI
Seismic gauges can detect the earthquakes or volcanic eruptions which may cause a tsunami.
But as only a small proportion of strong earthquakes produce a tsunami, a warning system based solely on seismic data
is prone to producing false alarms.
Other sea-based instruments are needed to help scientists decide if a tsunami has been triggered.
These fall into two main types: pressure recorders in the deep ocean and tide gauges monitoring sea-level at the
coast.
1. Recorder on sea bed measures water pressure every 15 mins - an unusual result triggers a reading every 15 secs.
2. Buoy measures surface conditions and sends this plus data from sea bed to satellite
3. Satellite receives data and relays it to ground stations
The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (Dart) system uses buoys and sensors stationed far out to sea.
A pressure recorder on the sea bed measures the weight of the water above it - which varies according to wave height and sends its findings to a buoy on the surface.
The buoy monitors the surface conditions and sends this, plus the data from the sea bed, to a satellite which relays it
back to a receiving station.
Germany is working on a joint project with Indonesia to put in place 10 of these buoys, the first two of which were
installed in November 2005.
India, Thailand and Australia are also planning to install Dart buoys along the Sunda Trench, the site of the earthquake
that triggered the tsunami.
The advantage of the Dart system is that it can detect tsunami far out to sea and give enough time to warn countries in
the region. However, the buoys are expensive to install and maintain.
Unesco's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is also focusing on a network of tide or sea-level
gauges.
1. Float in a "stilling well" tube measures sea level
2. Data is processed and sent to satellite
3. Satellite transmits data to alert centres
Unlike Dart buoys, tide gauges in the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) are sited on land, either on
mainland coasts or on islands out to sea.
The most basic form of gauges monitor the surface of the water with a system of tubes and floats (as shown right).
More modern versions "ping" the surface of the water from above with radar or sonar; or use sea-bed pressure sensors
attached to the sea-level observing station with a cable.
There are almost 70 GLOSS stations in the Indian Ocean. Before the tsunami, they were used to measure the sea level
for longterm climate change studies, and their data was transmitted only periodically.
Now, the stations are being upgraded so they can send real-time data via satellite to newly set up national tsunami
centres.
They are also being fitted with solar panels so they can continue to operate even if the mains power supply is
interrupted by severe weather.
Twenty-three stations should be fully upgraded by the end of June 2006, according to the IOC, and more will follow in
the next few years (see pop up map).
INTERIM ALERT SYSTEM
Seismic stations across the world registered the earthquake which caused the tsunami and global analysis centres
realised that a big event was likely, but as there was no warning system in place this information could not reach
people on the ground.
Until the Indian Ocean system has been fully developed, centres in Japan and Hawaii are forwarding alerts to countries
in the region.
Twenty-five countries have signed up to receive the warnings.
GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT
Perhaps the most important part of the tsunami early warning system is how to get the information to people who are
in immediate danger.
Primary responsibility for this rests with governments and most of the 27 nations bordering the Indian Ocean have
been setting up individual programmes for issuing tsunami alerts to their own people.
However, they have been so far unable to agree which country or countries will host the regional alert centres to
process international technical data and issue warnings across the area.
Thailand, India and Indonesia are forging ahead with their own systems and Australia, Malaysia and Singapore are
planning to develop warning capacities.
Thailand has opened a disaster warning centre which currently receives data from Hawaii and Japan.
Alerts can be sent in minutes to national and local governments and the media.
Thailand is also installing a network of 76 siren towers along part of its coastline and recently staged a tsunami
simulation exercise for emergency services.
India has also set up an alert centre which is monitoring data from seismographs and 11 tide gauges.
Indian officials say a full system for the country should be in operation within two years.
Indonesia plans to spend $125m on setting up its own tsunami detection system.
The UN is helping countries with other long-term measures including teaching tsunami awareness in schools, training
decision-makers and broadcasters, and making sure information is available in all local languages and staging practice
drills.
The most recent meeting of the UN's Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System group also recommended mapping
coastal zones to work out which locations are most at risk of flooding and to which areas it would be safe to evacuate
people in the event of an emergency.
“Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.” BBC News. BBC, 23 December 2005. Web. 14 Sept. 2010.
<http://news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4524642.stm.>
Directions: Address the following prompt based on your reading and analysis of the documents. Be sure to
incorporate geographically specific terminology as well as evidence (concrete details) from the documents
themselves. When you incorporate concrete details from the documents, be sure to indicate from which
document it was taken by placing the document number in as a parenthetical reference at the end of the
sentence. Full sentence answers are required.
Prompt: Given the extradorinary strength of the earthquake that generated the South Asain tsunami
of 2004, to what extent was the devastation that resulted avoidable?
I. Intro.
a.
b.
II. Body
a.
III. Body
a.
5 ws
thesis
Explain how tectonic forces created the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004.
Analyze the factors that contributed to the disaster resulting from the Indian Ocean quake and
subsequent tsunami; be sure to consider the prediction models used, misused, or unused
among other factors.
IV. Body
a. Eplain how/what aspects of the tragedy of the 2004 tsunmai could have been avoided and
what measures have been taken to begin to ensure that this tragedy does not recur.
V. Conclusion
a. Restate position
b. Summarize evidence
c. Explain the lasting significance/lesson to be learned/moral of the story
Remember…
TNR
Double-space
12 pt font
1” margins
After you write edit keeping in mind…
Topic sentences & transitions
No personalization
No rhetorical/hypothetical questions
Don’t end sentences in prepositions
Parenthetically refernce all documents used
Verical alignment
This assignment will count for 2 grades. Grade 1 will be a quiz grade for your index card notes. Grade 2 will
be an exam grade using Criterion A, B & D again.
DUE DATES:
Index Cards: B Day Mon. 10/3 A Day Tues. 10/4
Essay: A Day Thurs. 10/6 B Day Fri. 10/7