TSUNAMI (2004)

 



2004 TSUNAMI

26 December 2004

‘Tsunami’ (a Japanese word) means ‘high gravity sea-waves’ generated by disturbances in the seafloor caused by underwater volcano eruptions, landslides and/or earthquakes. Approaching Tsunami can be detected by seafloor pressure gauges which measure the height of the water columns. Scale is similar to Richter magnitude scale of earthquakes. Such high intensity tidal waves are triggered when the seafloor is deformed by seismic altitude vertically displacing the overlying water in the ocean. They travel towards seashore with mind-boggling speed, causing widespread damage and devastation along its course in general and the destination coastline in particular, and sometimes, deep into the hinterlands.

 

The Tsunami on December 26, 2004 was caused by a massive underwater earthquake scaling 9.1–9.3 Mw on the Richter Scale in the Indian Ocean with its epicentre off the coast of Sumatra in the Indonesian Archipelago, working and whipping up gigantic tidal waves that devastated the coastline of the Asian Continent lined up by Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Male, Malaysia, etc. It left more than 2 lakh people dead and colossal damage and loss of property all over Asia. In India, it affected Andaman and Nicobar Islands, States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, etc. in the peninsula. In Tamil Nadu, more than 5000 people died with Nagapattinam accounting for the highest toll. It also affected other coastal Districts of Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagercoil, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli inflicting a large-scale damage and loss of property.

 

Simple definitions of Tsunami coined by me are:

 

Ø    Fierce fountain off-sea makes a mountain of death.

Ø    Cracks of seafloor – breaks hearts on-shore.

Ø    Ripples under-sea cripple people on-shore.

Ø    Clash between plates underground causes flash damage on-ground.

Ø    Cross-directional movement of plates underneath sea-floor inflicts moments of destruction on coastline.

Ø    Tsunami – benami of Lord Yama.

 

R.SAMPATH

30/5/2020

 

(This was written by me in 2004)

Comments

  1. Jayanthi S26 December 2021 at 07:19

    Sorry to remember this
    Worries us about this but
    Carry the message to care and
    Learn the lesson to share

    ReplyDelete
  2. Siddheswar Subramanian26 November 2024 at 03:20

    This article was very informative and helped me with my research paper. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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