The Restless Earth- Indian Ocean

Location: Indian Ocean, affecting 13 countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Date of tsunami: 26th of December 2004.

Cause: - To the west coast of the Indonesian island Sumatra, an earthquake, with a magnitude of 9.1 on the richter scale, occured.

- At the destructive plate boundary, the sub-ducting Indo-Australian plate cracked and moved below the Eurasian plate very quickly.

- This displaced the above sea water, causing waves in all directions, travelling at speeds of up to 800km/ph.

- 230,000 people killed.

- Over 1.7 million people made homeless.

- Infrastructure severly damaged.

- 5-6 million people in need of emergency food, water and medcial supplies.

- Millions of fishermen lost their livelihoods, 60% of fleets destroyed.

- Tourism industry suffered as facilities damaged and people were to afraid to visit, vistor numbers to Phuket dropped by 80% in 2005.

- Salt water polluted fresh water areas, meaning plants were unable to grow.

- Mangroves and coral reefs were destroyed by the force of the tsunami.

- 8 million litres of oil leeked from Indonesian plants.

Short Term: - Within days, Bristish charities and individuals gave £330 million in order to supply food, water, shelter and medicine.

- Countries sent ships, planes, soldiers and aid workers to help rescue people, distribute supplies and begin clearing up.

- Authorities ordered for dead to be buried quickly to prevent the spread of disease.

Long Term: - $7 billion had been pledged by governments to help with the rebuild.

- Small-scale sustainable projects have been set up to help locals rebuild their lives.

- An Indian Ocean tsunami warning system has been created.

- Volunteers have been trained so that locals know what to do if a tsunami happens again.