Tsunami- case study (boxing day)

An Earthquake caused a tsunami in the Indian ocean in 2004

• 26th december 2004- an earthquake off the west coast of the island in Sumatra measuring around 9.1 on the richter scale.
• tsunami- plate which was moving down in the mantle cracked and opened very quickly, which caused a lot of water to be displaced, triggering a tsunami with waves up to 30m high.

cause

• The Indo-Australian Plate subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate just off the North-West coast of Indonesia.
• The indian ocean tsunami was one of the most destructive natural disasters that had ever happened, affecting most countries bordering the Indian Ocean, e.g Indonesia,Thailand,India and Sri Lanka were effected

Primary Effects: 

• 230,000 killed ( many are still missing)
• 650,000 people injured.
• Public buildings including schools and hospitals were wiped out.
• 1,500 settlements completely wiped out.
• Large areas of Eastern coast of India swamped.
• Infrastructure severely damaged.

Secondary Effects:

• disease spread quickly as people live close together in temporary shelters with poor sanitation
• rotting corpses attract disease
• 2,000,000 made homeless.
• 5,000,000 - 6,000,000 people needed emergency food, water and medical supplies.
• Tourism industry suffered heavily because of the destruction and people were afraid to go there-economic effect
• Large amounts of environmental damage occurred because the salt from the sea water meant that plants can't grow in many areas.

Short-term:

• hundreds and millions of pounds were pledged by foriegn governments,charities and individuals and businesses to give survivors acess to food, water,shelter and medical attention.
• Foriegn countries- sent ships,planes,soldiers and teams of specialists to help rescue people, distribute food and water and begin clearing up

Long-term responses:

• Billions of pounds pledged to help re-build infrastructure of countries affected.
• programmes have been set up to rebuild houses and help people to get back to work
• A tsunami warning system has been set up in place in the Indian Ocean.
• Disaster managment plans have been set up in the place of some countries. volunteers have been trained so that local people know what to do when a tsunami occurs.