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Nearly a quarter of a million died or disappeared during the disaster in 2004.

Ten years after disaster: recovering from a tsunami


Friday, December 26, 2014, 12:10 PM - It was Christmas Day in Canada when across the world an 9.1 earthquake struck western Indonesia.

In the area it was already December 26 and shortly after the tremor ended, the concern began as massive waves roared through the Indian Ocean. The earthquake and tsunami led to the death and disappearance of almost 200,000.


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The event was devastating and tragic and revolutionized the way scientists viewed tsunamis.

The Earthquake that set it all off...

The earthquake was initially classified as an 8.0, before an updated reading said it was an 8.8 and finally a 9.1. The magnitude makes it the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.

The shock sent 18 waves in different directions. Two hours later a tsunami hit the coastal villages in Sri Lanka

The western coast of Aceh, in northern Sumatra was among the hardest-hit by tsunamis. About 170,000 were killed in the city and about half a million people left homeless.

Months after the tsunami, a second earthquake killed another 1500 people.

A change in tsunami science...

Fifteen minutes after the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin saying there was no tsunami threat. Since they had no real-time sea level data, they couldn't know that the India plate had slid under the Burma plate displacing a huge amount of water.

In 2004, tsunami science was vastly different. There was no warning system in place for many countries near the Indian Ocean.

Models developing from the earthquake were predicting waves flying across the ocean at a speed of 220 km/h.

The tsunami was so devastating that immediate attention was drawn to the lack of funding going into tsunami preparedness. The research has since then proven that 'big earthquake' doesn't mean 'big tsunami.' There are new factors that are taken into account. Understanding how much energy is transferred from the earthquake to the wave is key to predicting it's path and strength.

Heavy investment has gone into the field including the acquisition of more deep ocean assessment buoys. There were three operational before the disaster. Today there are 60.

There have been 40 tsunamis in the last ten years and the science behind predicting the extent of damage has changed immensely. What took hours before today only take seconds.

In situations like tsunamis, time is key. If people can know as early as possible they have time to escape.


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