Tsunami and its Impact on Coastal

Zone

Dr. D. Mitra
Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Department
 What is a Tsunami?
• When mass movement, such as an
earthquake or landslide, suddenly
displaces a large amount of water from its
equilibrium state a disastrous wave called
a tsunami can form.
• Tsunami literally translates from Japanese
to “harbor wave” but are often call tidal
waves because small, distant-source
tsunamis resemble tidal surges.
 Tsunami Sources
• Earthquakes (e.g. Sumatra, 2004: >200,000
people killed; Papa New Guinea, 1998: ~3,000
people killed)
• Volcanic eruptions (e.g. Krakatoa, 1883:
tsunamis killed 30,000 people; Santorini, 2002).
• Mass Movement (e.g. Alaska, 1958: waves up to
518 m high formed in Lituya Bay).
• Extraterrestrial Impacts - large impacts have the
potential to create enormous tsunamis.
Tsunami Sources

Source: http://tsun.sscc.ru/tsulab/tgi_4.htm
 Tsunami Earthquake Sources
• Earthquakes that suddenly uplift or down-drop
the sea floor generate tsunamis.
• Generally such surface deformation is largest for
reverse and normal faulting earthquakes, and
small for transform faulting events thus the
potential for tsunamis is lower for strike slip
faults (e.g. the Balleny earthquake 1998 did not
generate a tsunami). In general tsunami are
generated by reversal faults.
 Geological Fault causing Tsunami

Thrust (Reverse) Fault

Normal Fault
Strike-Slip Fault
 Tsunami : Some facts
• A system of ocean gravity waves
formed as a result of large-scale
displacement of sea surface. Travel
long distances without losing energy.

• Length and Time Period

 Long wave length (of several 100
km)
 Periods of a few minutes to about
an hour
• Speed proportional to square root of
water depth
 500 to 1000 km per hour in deep
Ocean
 About 30 km per hour near shore
• Height of Tsunami Wave
 Less than a metre in the Deep
Ocean
 Grows to Tens of metres near
shore
 Tsunami Risk Assessment
Vulnerability of the Indian Ocean Coastline to Oceanogenic Disasters

More than 50 Nations around

Many are Developing Countries
More than1.5 Billion Population
More than 66,500 km coastline

26 % of Indian Population live

within 100 Km from the shoreline
Most of the coastal areas are low
lying and vulnerable to
oceanogenic disasters such as
Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Sea-level
rise
Frequent Cyclones - 13% of
World’s cyclones in the Seas
around India
A few Tsunami events in the past -
Dec 26, 2004 Tsunami resulted in a
loss of 18,045 deaths and 6,47,599
persons displaced
 Tsunamigenic Earthquake 2004

26 December 2004 Estimated Energy – 100 Giga Tons of

TNT (equivalent of 96,000 A-bombs of
Movement magnitude 9.3 Hiroshima size)
Earth Oscillated by 20 – 30 cm
Second Largest Earthquake
1,200 km of plate boundary subducted
Fault rupture – over 100 Km (from the focus up to the
bathymetric trench along the thrust)
Fault plane displacement – 15 m
Duration was 8 minutes – longest ever recorded

A Great Tsunami was triggered

affecting many countries around
the Indian Ocean
Indonesia – Banda Aceh – Before the tsunami
Indonesia – Banda Aceh – after the tsunami
Indonesia – Banda Aceh – Before the tsunami
Indonesia – Banda Aceh – after the tsunami
Indonesia – Gleebruk village – before the tsunami
Indonesia – Gleebruk village – after the tsunami
 Marina Beach, Chennai

26 December 2004

Onlookers running for life as the waves coming menacingly at them

People in India were completely unaware of the fury of tsunami

 Describing Ocean Waves
 Tsunami Wave: V~ 1000km/s, l~800 km
 Since the long-wavelength waves lose less energy a tsunami
can travel transoceanic distances with only limited energy loss.
 In the deep ocean the amplitude of a tsunami is a few cm to few
dm on a very long wavelength: it is not felt aboard a ship or
seen from air in open ocean (but can be measured by buoy or
satellite altimeter).
 When a tsunami approaches the shoreline the velocity
decreases (D diminish) and in order to conserve energy
(proportional to v and H) the amplitude increases.

2
HD1 v D2 gD2
2
 
HD2 v D1 gD1
 An Example
 Tsunami Wave Example: Sumatra 2004
 How long does it take to get to Sri Lanka?
Distance ~1600 km
Water Depth ~4000 m
m km
v  gD  9.8 * 4000  198  713
s hr
T= 1600/713=2.2 hr


Badly affected countries
700-km in N-S direction

1200 km east of mainland

572 islands (36 inhabited)

Area: 8250 sq. km

Population: 0.4 million

 Port Blair, Capital of
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
26 December 2004

Bus stand submerged

Jetty
completely submerged

Photos: Tapan Ghosh, GSI

 Port Blair, Capital of
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
26 December 2004

Residential building

Road cracked

Photos: Tapan Ghosh, GSI

Uplifted wave-cut bench and coral beds
Western coast of Middle Andaman Island

Photo: 7 Jan 2005

Little Andaman Island

Uplifted on the western side

These images are derived from a

comparison of intensity of reflected
microwave observed by ENVISAT ASAR
between June 3, 2004 (before
Earthquake) and December 30, 2004
(after Earthquake). GSI, Japan
 North Sentinel Island

Exposed
Coral beds
1.6 km wide

2 km
 North Sentinel Island

The coral reef is now exposed due to the uplift of the

seabed and island was uplifted by 3-5 metres.

Photo by Indian Coast Guard

28 December 2004
A Sentinel tribal aims his arrow at a Coast Guard helicopter.
Sentinelese – aboriginal of Andaman & Nicobar Islands may be the only
surviving Paleolithic people on Earth. A distance observation in 2001 puts their
number as 21 male and 18 female in total
Photo by Indian Coast Guard
28 December 2004
About 300,000 people were killed in about six countries
around the Indian Ocean

But not even a single death reported from the Onges,

Jarawas, Sentinelese, and Great Andamanese, as they took
to forests after the earthquake

These tribes live close to nature and are known to heed

biological warning signs like changes in the cries of birds
and the behaviour patterns of land and marine animals
 ANIMALS SEEM TO KNOW

1. Elephants screamed and ran for higher ground.

2. Dogs refused to go outdoors.

3. Flamingos abandoned their low-lying breeding areas.

4. Zoo animals rushed into their shelters and could not be enticed to
come back out.

5. The belief that wild and domestic animals possess a sixth sense - and
know in advance when the earth is going to shake - has been around
for centuries.

6. Wildlife experts believe animals' more acute hearing and other senses
might enable them to hear or feel the Earth's vibration, tipping them off
to approaching disaster long before humans realize what's going on.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0104_050104_tsunami_animals.html
Tarangambadi – Tamil Nadu State IKONOS image
29 december 2004 (Space Imaging)
 Marina Beach - Chennai
Slide 8

Before and after the

tsunami
Many persons
including morning
walkers perished

Pre-tsunami photo 26 December 2004

 Visakhapatnam

Idols are dragged out of the temple

100 km New tidal creek formed

East Coast of India
(Andhra Pradesh State)

Tsunami return flow

is also destructive
 Visakhapatnam

Krishna Delta mouths

Krishna Delta

100 km

Krishna Delta
Mouth closed 5 km
17 April 2004
 ENVISAT
1 Jan 2005
Mouth Opened up
QuickBird Browse Image
12 July 2005
source: Digital Globe

Mouth Closed again

• High water marks ("bathtub rings") on walls and structures are reliable,
as well as marine-origin objects or vegetation locations.
• Lines of landward limit of sea grass, debris, sediment, or floating
garbage deposition (distinguish from deposition due to normal high
tides), horizontal boundaries between vegetation killed or damaged by
saltwater and surviving vegetation (discoloration after a few weeks is a
good indicator), amounts of bark stripped from trees, and levels of
seaweed or debris caught in screens or other structures, are also
good indicators.
 Describing Tsunamis
 Tsunami wave height is the height of the
wave at the shore.
 Tsunami run-up height is the maximum
height that the wave reaches on land.
Tsunami affected Map of the area

Post-tsunami IRS-P6 LISS III image

Date of acquisition: 05 January 2005
 Affected area Map

IRS P6 AWiFS post-tsunami image

Date of acquisition: 28 December 2004
Comparison between Total area and Tsunami
affected area
S.NO LAND COVER TOTAL AREA AREA AFFECTED BY TSUNAMI
(Sq.Km) (Sq.Km) (Percentage)

1 BUILT-UP AREA 47.26 02.17 4.58

2 CROP LAND 373.01 16.47 4.41

3 OTHER VEGETATIVE 61.80 0.03 0.04

COVER

4 SCRUBS 24.86 06.73 27.06

5 RIVER & CANALS 12.28 04.12 33.54

6 MUD FLAT 26.18 15.21 58.89

7 SALT PAN 02.81 02.72 97.5

8 WASTE LAND 03.58 01.89 52.97

 The extent of inundation of seawater depends
on earthquake parameters, nearshore
bathymetry, beach profile, land topography
and velocity of tsunami waves and their
frequency. Due to these parametric variations,
the inundations varied from one location to the
other.

Tsunami inundation map around Nagapattinam area, Tamilnadu, India

mitra@iirs.gov.in