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This ministry
has been underwritten with generous support from
Surner Heating
Additional
generous financial support was provided by
Special T's & More
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Summary
Date
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Sunday, December 26, 2004
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Time
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7:00 a.m. (Sumatra time), 7:00 p.m. (local
time)
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Magnitude
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9.0 Largest earthquake since 1964,
fourth largest since 1899. The three other larger quakes
all created tsunamis.
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Location (epicenter)
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100 miles from the western coast of Indonesia's
Sumatra Island
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News
CNN
Special Reports This is an excellent site with updated information
about the relief efforts, maps of the area, photographs and much more.
What
is a tsunami?
Click
here to see an animation of how the tsunami spread across
the ocean. This was prepared by the scientists at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and requires
QuickTime to view.
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First, a tsunami is NOT a tidal wave. Tidal
waves are caused by the action of the wind and the forces of the moon
and the rotation of the earth upon the ocean. Tsunamis are caused
by an earthquake who's epicenter is located under the ocean.
The movement of the seabed sets the water in motion.
In the deep ocean the force of the wave moving through the water is
detectable by instruments, but does not cause any damage. It is
when this wave motion reaches the shorelines that the damage occurs.
As the depth of the seabed lessens, the wave motion then translates
into a tsunami that causes the damage that we saw in the Sumatra earthquake.
A tsunami can travel at speeds up to 600 mph in
the deep ocean, but will then slow to 30 to 40 mph as they approach
the shore. The energy from the wave, which cannot be lost, will
then be translated into wave height and force.
 A
system for detecting the deep-water movement of a tsunami has been developed
and put into place in the Pacific Ocean but not in the Indian Ocean
where the Sumatra earthquake occurred. This system involves a
series of underwater monitoring stations and buoys that sense the movement
of the water and transmit a signal to monitoring stations.
(If you click on the graphic to the left you can
view a diagram of the system that has been set in place in the Pacific
Ocean.)
Earthquakes
An earthquake is a movement of the earth's crust,
or outer layer. The earth is made up of a series of "plates"
that move in relation to each other. The areas where these plates
come up against each other are where scientists predict that most earthquakes
will occur.
In this case, the earthquake involved the movement
of approximately 600 miles of the India and Burma plates.
Earthquakes are very common and occur all
over the world every day. While scientists can predict where earthquakes
are more likely to occur, they cannot predict when they will happen.
When an earthquake happens above the ocean, we
see the type of damage that occurred in the Northridge earthquake in
California in 1992 or the Kobe, Japan earthquake in 1995. However,
when an earthquake occurs under the ocean in the seabed, the most typical
damage is that caused by a tsunami.
Disaster Information
Habitat
for Humanity News
India
Core House Learn
more about the type of housing that Habitat will be building in the
disaster area.
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