Indian Ocean Tsunami: Boxing Day 2004

26th December 2004

Destructive Plate Margin along the west coast of Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Earthquake off the west coast of the island of Sumatra: 9.1 on the Richter Scale.

The plate being subducted into the mantle cracked and moved very quickly. This caused a lot of water to be displaced = a tsunami with waves upto 30m high.

One of the MOST DESTRUCTIVE natural disasters EVER

Affected most of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean; Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia.

The effects of the tsunami were so bad because THERE WAS NO EARLY WARNING SYSTEM!

Effects of the tsunami:

1. Around 230,000 people were killed (or are still missing).

2. Whole towns and villages were destroyed.

3. Over 1.7 million people lost their homes.

4. The infrastructure of many countries was severely damaged.

5. 5-6million people needed emergency food, water and medical supplies.

6. Massive economic damage; to fisherman(lost their livelihood) and the tourism industry (people were frightened to go there).

7. Environmental damage; salt from the seawater has meant plants can't grow in many areas. Mangroves, sand dunes, forests and coral reefs were destroyed.

Short Term Responses

1. Hundreds of millions of £'s had been pledged by foreign governments, charities, businesses and individuals WITHIN DAYS to give survivors food, water shelter and medical attention.

2. Foreign countries sent ships, planes soldiers and teams of specialists to help rescue, distribute food and water and start clearing up.

Long Term Responses

1. Billions of £'s have been pledged to help re-build.

2. Programmes have been set up to re-build houses and get people back to work.

3. A Tsunami Warning System has been put in place in the Indian Ocean.

4. Disaster management plans have been put in place in some countries.

5. Volunteers have been trained so they know what to do if a tsunami happens again.