The Earth’s

Pandemonium
Name Class Roll No.

NEHA PANDEY VIII-B 17

SONIA KUMARI VIII-B 35

PRIYA GUPTA VIII-B 34

TSUNAMI is a Japanese
word that means
“HARBOUR WAVES” as
the harbours get
destroyed whenever
there is a Tsunami.
 What are tsunamis?
Tsunami is a very large ocean wave triggered
by underwater earthquake, volcanic activities
or landslides. These waves have unusually
long-wavelength in excess of 100 kms,
generated in the open ocean and transformed
into a train of catastrophic oscillations on the
sea surface close to coastal zones. These
normally occur in Pacific Ocean and are highly
unexpected surrounding the Indian
subcontinent.
How Tsunamis Are Created
Tsunamis are generated when a large
amount of water is displaced very quickly.
These phenomena include earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, landslides, and even
meteorite impacts. However, the most
common cause is an undersea earthquake.
Tsunamis can also be created when the sea
floor abruptly moves at a fault in the
earth’s crust.
 Development of a Tsunami
 After a large mass of water has been displaced, waves
form as the mass moves (due to gravity) to regain its
balance. The wave moves the entire depth of the ocean,
rather than just the surface. This means it contains an
enormous amount of energy, allowing it to travel great
distances at high speeds. As the wave travels, the energy
is spread over a larger and larger area. In open water,
tsunamis have huge wavelengths (hundreds of km). They
are often less than 1 m high out at sea. The wave travels
across the ocean at speeds up to 1,000 km/h. When the
wave is near the shore, the water piles up on itself and
becomes a huge wave and crashes onto the land.
 26th

December
2004
 It was all quiet on the waterfront on the Sunday
morning after Christmas in 2004 at Kanyakumari,
the famous Marina Beach in Chennai and
elsewhere on the Kerala coast and Andaman
Nicober Islands. There was the excitement of a
holyday with an offbeat mood with swarms of
people on the sea front: children playing cricket
and man and women on their morning work at the
Marina. Elsewhere, fishermen were putting out to
sea for the day’s catch. Then all on a sudden, a
curious thing happened. The holidaymakers at
Kanyakumari were awestruck when the sea
receded from the shores.
 Almost all the countries situated around the
Bay of Bengal were affected by the
tsunami waves in the morning hours of 26
December 2004 (between 0900 – 1030 hrs
IST). The killer waves were triggered by an
earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter
scale that had an epicenter near the west
coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. As the
Indian plate went under the Burma plate,
there was a sudden movement of the sea
flour, causing the Earthquake. The first
recorded tsunami in India dates back to 31
December 1881.
 In this tsunami, India was the third country
severely battered after Indonesia and Srilanka.
In India the State severely affected by tsunami
are Tamilnadu, Pondicheri, Andhra Pradesh,
Kerala and Andaman and Nicober Island. The
following Table shows the average scenario of
tsunami devastation in the respective areas.
The data relating to the Andaman and Nicober
are yet to be assessed, for which it does
appear in the followingTable.
 Tsunami damage in India
Factor Andhra Pradesh Kerala Tamil Nadu Pondcherry Total
                             
  
Population 211,000 2,470,000 691,000 43,000 3,415,000
affected
Area affected 790 Unknown 2,487 790 4,067
(Ha)
Length of coast 985 250 1,000 25 2,260
affected (Km)
Extent of 0.5 - 2.0 1-2 1 - 1.5 0.30 - 3.0
penetration (Km)
Reported height 5 3-5 7-10 10
of tsunami (m)
Villages affected 301 187 362 26 876

Dwelling units 1,557 11,832 91,037 6,403 110,829

Cattle lost 195 Unknown 5,476 3,445

 While the Earthquake can not be
predicted in advance, it is possible to
give a three – hour notice of a potential
Tsunami. Such early warning systems
are in place across the Pacific Ocean,
but not in the Indian Ocean. Tsunamis
are rare in the Indian Ocean as the
seismic activity is less as compared to
the Pacific.
 The Tsunami that ravaged the South
and South Asian coasts in December
2004, is the most devastating Tsunami
in the last several hundred years. The
large damage caused to life and
property was primarily a result of lack
of monitoring, the early warning
system and knowledge among the coast
dwellers of Indian Ocean.
The Survey of India maintains a tide gauge network along the coast of India.
The gauges are located in major ports shown in the figure below.
 Effects
of
Tsunamis
1946 - tsunami killed


165 people in Hawaii /

Alaska, resulted in
creation of tsunami
warning system.
 1960 – Chile strongest quake ever
recorded (magnitude 9.5) off coast of
south central Chile, one of the most
destructive tsunamis of the 20th
century. Waves measured up to 25
meters high. Tsunami hit Onagawa,
Japan 22 hrs after the quake with
waves 3 m above the tide. killed
about (estimation) 2290 people.
 1964 - good Friday-magnitude
9.2 quake, tsunamis struck
Alaska, B.C. and killed 122
people. tsunamis were up to 6
meters tall.
 2004 - Indian ocean - magnitude 9.2 quake triggered a
lethal series of tsunamis on December 26, killed over
310,000 people (over 220,000 in Indonesia alone),
deadliest tsunami in recorded history, killed people in
Indonesia/Thailand all the way to India, Bangladesh
(several thousand km’s away) and even as far as
eastern Africa (Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania). Over
$600M was raised to help the victims. Unlike the
Pacific Ocean, there is no alert system covering the
Indian Ocean. There had not been a tsunami there
since the krakatoa volcanic eruption tsunami in 1883.
UNESCO and other world bodies have called for a
global tsunami monitoring system.