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Indian Ocean Tsunami

5 January 2005

Scientists at many of the Natural Environment Research Council's Research Centres have been very busy providing information and advice in the days immediately following the earthquake in the Indian Ocean, and are now involved in developing follow-up actions.

The effect of a tsunami is usually felt over 50-100 km of coast but this event was very much larger and will require a major international scientific effort to study in full. Although some analysis can be carried out using satellite data, a significant deployment of teams on the ground is likely to be required.

If you need to find someone who can provide expert information please contact the press officers listed for each Research Centre, or the NERC press office directly.

Background information

What happened and why

The USGS Earthquake Information Centre gives the following parameters for the earthquake location and magnitude.

Date : 26 December 2004
Origin Time : 00:58 53 s UTC
Lat/Long : 3·267° North / 95·821° East
Depth : 10 km
Magnitude : 9·0
Locality : 255 km SSE of Banda Aceh, Northern Sumatra

The following summary is based on information from the British Geological Survey (BGS) Earthquakes website.

The earthquake, the largest in 40 years, occurred as a result of the convergence of the Indian and Asian tectonic plates, with the Indian plate moving approximately northeast at a rate of around 6 cm per year at an oblique angle to the Java Trench. As the Indian plate is subducted, this creates a thrust zone along the plate boundary. This thrusting motion along the interface between the two plates generated the earthquake.

The aftershock zone extends from Northern Sumatra to the Andaman Islands, some 1000 km to the north. This zone delineates the length of mainshock rupture. The width of the rupture zone is approximately 100 km and the maximum slip is approximately 20 m. The largest aftershock was magnitude 7·1 in the Nicobar Islands at 04:21 UTC on 26 December.

This is the largest earthquake in the world since a magnitude 9·2 earthquake struck Alaska in 1964 at Prince William Sound. Similar great earthquakes struck in Chile 1960 (magnitude 9·4) and Alaska 1957 (magnitude 9·1).

The tsunami was a direct consequence of the earthquake, which caused movement of the seafloor all along the length of rupture, displacing a huge volume of water and generating the tsunami wave. The vertical uplift could have been as much as several metres. In the open ocean tsunami waves move very rapidly, 300-500 miles per hour - about the speed of a jet airliner. As the wave approaches the coast it slows down and grows in height so that it can be many metres high when it strikes the coast. The tsunami took seven hours to cross the Indian ocean which is 4500 km wide. Some coastal areas had virtually no warning of the approaching tsunami.

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Press contacts

For information related to the earthquake itself, see the BGS Earthquakes website or contact

Dr David Kerridge
Tel: 0131 667 1000.

General enquiries on the BGS response and coordination of international efforts should be directed to:

David Ovadia
Tel: 0115 936 3465

Areas of expertise

BGS has extensive international expertise in earthquakes and tsunamis, and world-wide experience in disciplines related to geohazard assessment, recovery and reconstruction (including groundwater protection, engineering geology, sea-bed imaging and hazard mapping). Many of its staff have been involved in explaining the events to the media since 26 December and are already contributing to international initiatives.

In addition to (near) real-time monitoring of seismic events (earthquakes) worldwide from its Edinburgh office, BGS has, by virtue of its long history of working overseas, considerable data and expertise in the region affected. This includes rare data from engineering geology mapping and boreholes of the alluvial plain of the Aceh region that could be useful in the rebuilding phase in that area. BGS is currently updating its relevant data holdings and will make these available as required.

BGS recognises that many individual scientists, scientific institutions, aid agencies and private sector companies around the world are already working on various aspects of the post-disaster science response. However, we are not aware that these efforts are, at present, being strongly co-ordinated and there seems to be a danger that their value might be lessened as a result. BGS has close links with many of the organisations likely to be involved and also has a strong track record in aid-related geoscience.

BGS therefore proposes to facilitate a preliminary meeting of international scientists with the purpose of pooling data, knowledge and activity plans being developed by the international and regional scientific communities, and co-ordinating these efforts to best effect. The meeting will be under the auspices of CCOP and in close collaboration with the geoscientific organisations in the countries most affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Provisional dates for the meeting are 28-31 January (in Bangkok) and the possibility of including field excursions to affected areas is being explored. BGS is currently working closely with CCOP and liaising with colleagues around the world to discuss the arrangements.

In the meantime, BGS will continue to provide scientific advice to the UK Government, including the FCO and DFID, aid organisations, the media and the public. BGS will also work on a bilateral basis with public and private sector bodies with responsibility for designing and implementing tsunami warning systems, and with national geological surveys in the affected region.

A full statement from BGS (as a PDF) is available.

Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL)

Expertise in tide gauge records/ sea level monitoring / GLOSS.

Press Contacts

NERC Press Office
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

For some years Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory has led the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's GLOSS (Global Sea Level Observing System) development, primarily from a climate change/ocean circulation perspective. This programme aims to establish global and regional networks of tide gauges. There are currently about 50 around the Indian Ocean. Tide gauges in the Pacific Ocean have a dual purpose – they form part of a tsunami warning system. A similar system could be developed in the Indian Ocean. The IOC has been successful in getting funds for upgrades to perhaps 15 stations in Africa. The new equipment will need to operate in real-time and be rapid sampling (ie more rapid than needed for tides/climate etc) to provide adequate warning against tsunamis.

POL itself is committed to installing two new radar gauge stations in Mozambique in April 2005. These monitor sea level by bouncing the radar off the sea surface and back. They are more cost effective than some other gauges but very reliable and effective.

Technology other than tide gauges: Global Positioning Satellite monitors on deep ocean buoys have been suggested as an alternative to the bottom pressure and moorings used in the Pacific. This is an attractive option but it is possible that GPS needs more power than solar panels can provide. But POL can immediately advise on the bottom pressure option and study others again.

Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC)

Press Contacts

Kim Marshall Brown
Tel: 023 8059 6170

Jacky Wood
Tel: 023 8059 6102

On 6 January at a meeting in Germany a number of leading European marine research laboratories confirmed their commitment to further develop collaboration in marine research, technology development and infrastructure.

Areas of expertise

The Sedimentary Surface Group and Crustal Process Group
The Sedimentary Processes Group aims to understand how sedimentary processes operate on continental margins and determine how these processes interact with each other to build the ancient geological record. The Crustal Processes Group works to improve our understanding of the controls on the composition, formation and deformation of the oceanic crust. The interplay between mantle dynamics and lithosphere recycling impacts on many aspects of natural resources and the environment

Relevant projects
EUROSTRATOFORM – examining sediment transport from rivers to oceans. The project can look back in time in the sediment record to identify tsunamis in the past and can even look at the Storegga landslip, the last European tsunami 7000 years ago.

There has been much interest recently in the idea that a tsunami could be created in the Canary Islands and travel across the Atlantic.

Areas of expertise
Wave propagation/measurement in the Pacific.
Coastal impacts.
Similarities between tsunami and tidal bores.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

Press contacts

Linda Capper
Tel: 01223 221448

Athena Dinar
Tel: 01223 221414

Dr Rob Larter can talk about the environment and mechanisms of tsunami-generating earthquakes, and about submarine landslides that can produce tsunamis.

Satellite Observation

Relief agencies are using Earth Observation satellite imagery to detect the hardest hit regions around the Indian Ocean enabling them to target their efforts more effectively. Scientists will use satellite instruments to measure the extent of the damage.

NERC's Centre for Observation & Modelling of Earthquakes & Tectonics (COMET)

Satellite techniques developed over the past decade now allow us to determine the deformation of the Earth's crust over different timescales and areas. The deformation can be determined over periods ranging from days to millions of years, and over length scales ranging from tens to thousands of kilometres.

A meeting will be held in London on 10-11 February 2005 on the impact of satellite measurements on the observation and modelling of continental deformation.

The aims of the meeting are:

• To bring the above developments to the attention of sections of the geological community currently unfamiliar with them;
• To show the power of the new techniques resulting from them being applied together on the problem of continental deformation.

Ecological damage

Satellite imagery and ground-based reports are highlighting serious ecological damage across the region. Mangroves, corals, coastal forests, wetlands, biodiversity, groundwater and geomorphologic features such as sand dunes and rock formations have all been affected. Scientists can do little about changes to rock formations or sand dunes but they can perhaps do something about saline water seeping into groundwater or coastal forests.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

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Press release: 05/05

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