how did the 2004 indian ocean tsunami really occur?
451814
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which had a magnitude of 9.15, triggered a series of lethal tsunamis on  December 26, 2004 that killed approximately 230,000 people (including 168,000 in Indonesia alone), making it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.[7] The tsunami killed people over an area ranging from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand and the north-western coast of Malaysia to thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and even as far as Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa. The disaster prompted a huge worldwide effort to help victims of the tragedy, with billions of dollars being raised for disaster relief.\n\nUnlike in the Pacific Ocean, there was no organized alert service covering the Indian Ocean. This was in part due to the absence of major tsunami events between 1883 (the Krakatoa eruption, which killed 36,000 people) and 2004. In light of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, UNESCO and other world bodies have called for a global tsunami monitoring system.
1119464
surfed a tsunami? dude thats like impossible. but we watched this movie on tsunamis in school and once this fishing boat in japan i think road in on one and survived.. they ended up landing in like a forest though.
726149
The word Tsunami is Japanese and they been hit a number of times over their history. As for what would happen if hit today, it would depend on where got hit. If not one of the industrial or commercial centers such as Tokyo, etc.... their would be loss of life and a number of ill effects but Japan would survive. If it his one of these major areas.... their would be a major disruption of trade and the economy could become unstable, this would also affect the stock markets not only in Japan but everywhere else in the world, since Japanese goods are exported everywhere including the United States.
500590
Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterized as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour. \nAs a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth - let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses.
659726
Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System is going to be installed very soon by Government of India.  The [head]functioning office for generating warning will be located at Hyderabad.  I was given to understand that [1] NIOT [2] NIO [3] IMD will be given the task.  INCOIS will be playing a major role. The US Geological Survey will help you provided your findings proved to be scientific.
675533
God caused it.  Look at Indonesia.  The largest majority Muslim country in the world.  He's just wiping out the morons is all.  First the Tsunami, now the earthquake.  I wonder what's next.
373466
They don't. They can happen anytime. Cyclones or hurricanes last for several days and may arrive at a place in the day or night. Earthquakes can happen when the plates in the earth move. The Indian Ocean earthquake that caused the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami happened around 8.00 am in local time. Mudslides occur after heavy rain or snow,
540531
The threat of a tsunami was forecast if a large part of the Azores broke away and fell into the sea. Apparently, part of a dormant volcano is crumbling and is at risk of shearing away. This action is believed to be large enough to cause a tsunami that will reach both sides of the Atlantic.
668489
It is my belief, that tsunamis are formed when Posiedon, the Greek God of the Oceans, becomes angry with the people of the world.  He thus claps his hands and sends forth a giant wave to flex his godly might and show us mortals of his infinate powers, over the sea.
685237
Underwater earthquakes cause Tsunamis. Not god you braindead christian nitwit!
730324
"The Word " ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS & SUMATRA " will be removed from the geographical area in another 10 million years since the eurasian plates are moving inch by inch .\n\nThe region where the great earthquake occurred on 26 December 2004, marks the seismic boundary formed by the movement of the Indo-Australian plate as it collides with the Burma subplate, which is part of the Eurasian plate. However, the Indo-Australian tectonic plate may not be as coherent as previously believed. According to recent studies reported in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters (vol 133), it apears that the two plates have separated many million years ago and that the Australian plate is rotating in a counterclockwise direction, putting stress in the southern segment of the India plate.\n\nFor millions of years the India tectonic plate has drifted and moved in a north/northeast direction, colliding with the Eurasian tectonic plate and forming the Himalayan mountains. As a result of such migration and collision with both the Eurasian and the Australian tectonic plates, the Indian plate's eastern boundary is a diffuse zone of seismicity and deformation, characterized by extensive faulting and numerous large earthquakes.\n\nThe epicenter of the 26 December 2004 earthquake was near the triple point junction of three tectonic plates where major earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred in the past.\n\nPrevious major earthquakes have occurred further north, in the Andaman Sea and further South along the Sumatra, Java and Sunda sections of one of the earth's greatest fault zones, a subduction zone known as the Sunda Trench. This great trench extends for about 3,400 miles (5,500 kms) from Myanmar (Burma) south past Sumatra and Java and east toward Australia and the Lesser Sunda Islands, ending up near Timor. Slippage and plate subduction make this region highly seismic. The volcanoes of Krakatau, Tambora and Toba, well known for their violent eruptions, are byproducts of such tectonic interactions.\n\nIn addition to the Sunda Trench, the Sumatra fault is responsible for seismic activity on the Island of Sumatra. This is a strike-slip type of fault which extends along the entire length of the island.\n\nThe Burma plate encompasses the northwest portion of the island of Sumatra as well as the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands, which separate the Andaman Sea from the Indian Ocean. Further to the east, a divergent boundary separates the Burma plate from the Sunda plate.\n\nMore specifically, in the region off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a northeastward direction at about 5 to 5.5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate.\n\nChronological Sequence of Major Aftershocks Along the West Coast of Northern Sumatra and in the Nicobar and Andaman Island Region Following the Major Earthquake om 26 December 2004\n\n\n MAGNITUDE   DATE  UTC-TIME  LATITUDE  LONGITUDE  DEPTH  REGION \n              \n 8.9  2004/12/26  00:58:51  3.298  95.779  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.9  2004/12/26  01:48:47  5.393  94.423  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:15:58  12.375  92.509  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.0  2004/12/26  02:22:02  8.83  92.532  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:34:50  4.104  94.184  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:36:06  12.139  93.011  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.0  2004/12/26  02:51:59  12.511  92.592  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.9  2004/12/26  02:59:12  3.177  94.259  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 6.1  2004/12/26  03:08:42  13.808  92.974  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 7.3  2004/12/26  04:21:26  6.901  92.952  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 5.7  2004/12/26  06:21:58  10.623  92.323  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.7  2004/12/26  07:07:10  10.336  93.756  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.8  2004/12/26  07:38:25  13.119  93.051  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.5  2004/12/26  09:20:01  8.867  92.382  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 6.2  2004/12/26  10:19:30  13.455  92.
273850
Tsunamis have always occurred - any time there is a major undersea disturbance caused by a massive earthquake or undersea landslide. There is clear evidence, for example, of a major tsunami occurring 9,000 years ago off the coast of Scotland. \n\nTsunami means "harbour wave" in Japanese. It refers to the fact that the huge wave only rises up when the large wave meets very shallow water near coasts or in bays. Japan has been hit several times by tsunamis (although not in the last few decades).
977936
You can rest easy on this one.\n\nNo, an entire glacier will not slip off into the ocean all at once causing a massive global tsunami that wipes out the entire world.\n\nFor one thing, a glacier is a very large collection of ice, which usually has a collection of impurities, such as rocks, plants, frozen mamoths, and such inside it.  These objects inside the glacier have a different structural strength and flexibility than the ice, so the ice tends to crack around them.\n\nEven if the glacier were pure ice, ice only has so much rigidity, and as it grinds it's way toward the sea through the winding valley it inhabits, the glacier will naturally break up into chunks of various sizes.\n\nAs the glacier nears the coast line, these different chunks begin to break off, forming ice burgs of different sizes.  This naturally limits the size of any one ice burg, and that in turn limits the possible tsunami scale waves to rather small splashes.  In fact, to get bigger ice burgs, the part where the ice enters the water must be closer to the same height, so a splash from a very big ice burg would instead be a small ripple as it goes down a much shorter distance in falling into the sea.\n\nYou could go through some complicated equations to figure out just how big a piece of ice could possibly fall into the ocean at any one time, and how far it would fall to figure out just how big a wave it could make, and then determine how far such a wave could propagate before it died out like ripples in a pond, but the basic fact is that no ice burg could cause a massive tidal wave.\n\nPresumably, if the water under the glacier melted really fast, the entire glacier might fall into the ocean, forming many, many small splashes as each piece broke and fell, but again, water is not a perfect lubricant, and this will limit the rate at which they fall, which will prevent a single catastrophic tidal wave, although under certain circumstances, the ice burgs might fall in a pattern that produced very choppy water that ships wouldn't be able to sail in... but again, not on a global scale.\n\nAre government leaders in the US aware of this posibility? NO!  government leaders are barely even aware of how to get themselves re-elected.\n\nIs it too late to do anything about it?  Umm, no.  We could build enormous mirrors in various parts of the world to reflect more sunlight back into space, which should reduce the effects of global warming to some extent.  That, along with using jets to produce global dimming, and changing to less polluting equippment to reduce greenhouse gasses might keep the ice burgs from falling too fast to make choppy water.\n\nIs the USA to blame for what will happen to our planet? of course.  With a population of less than half that of China or india, and much cleaner resources we are obviously the major polluters in the world. \n\nIs this event the next "Mass Extinction?"  only for fish that get in the way of the falling ice bergs.
557950
tsunami is mainly caused by the fault caused in the interior of the earth in the sea bed, coz of which the water gets charged up! its sumthing like whn we put sumthing in the glass of water & the water forms ripples!this is in a glass of water, imagine,in the ocean or sea full of water! one ripple causes many to go ahead! this is how tsunami takes place! first effect, the level of water rises & captures the land & the shore where it strikes is all together devastated,eg. nagapattinam coast! second, once a tsunami is caused, it will take place in other forms all over the world. coz the land displaced in the sea bed will have to get a flat shape..till thn itll cause other floors of earth to get displaced as wel1! its an ongoin phenomena, sumtimes itll take shape into destruction, other times it will not! we can just monitor thm , but cannot stop thm coz its nature after all! nobody can control thm!
645377
An earthquake on the sea floor of the ocean caused a landslide. It's hard to believe, but the rocks and debris in this landslide move at over 100 MPH, even under water. \n\nThis landslide displaced the water above it, causing a valley in the watter, from which the huge waves were formed, probably 30 ft high. \n\nIf you've ever done a belly flop into the water from a high-diving board, you know that water acts more like a solid at high speed. So with the tsunami wave rushing at the land at high speed, it's like a freight train crashing into the shore. \n\nTragically, it's not the wave itself that kills most people. Although the wave does the most destruction, most of the "freight train" effect is dissipated in the first block from shore, but the water keeps going inland. It is the rushing water backward into the sea that drags people and animals and anything lose with it, and they drown in a hurrican of water.
873581
Can, do and will get worse.\n\nFrom  Nunatsiaq News:\n\n"In the last century, three of the 10 largest earthquakes in the world have occurred in Alaska, and these produced deadly tsunamis. In 1958, a landslide caused by an earthquake sent a tsunami 524 metres high into Lihuya Bay, killing several fishermen and stripping the fiord of vegetation.\n\nThe presence of sea ice has lessened or "dampened" the impacts of most tsunamis in the Arctic Ocean. That's why Alan W. Harris, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in California, maintains there's little possibility of a killer wave doing much damage in the Arctic and "only polar bears need worry about whether the ice damps the tsunami wave from an Arctic impact."\n\nBut in the future, with increased calving of glaciers and ice shelves, where massive hunks of ice break off and crash down into the water, there could be more Arctic tsunami-type waves, and, with less sea ice, these could have a larger, visible impact."
749900
I actually saw a documentary on this, on the channel "Discovery Civilizations".\n\nBasically, it said the whole area is tectonically unstable and laced with pockets of underground gas.  There was an earthquake, that resulted in liquefaction of the sands, and the entire cities slid right into the sea.  The fires were the result of friction lighting the gas pockets on fire.   \n\nIt would have been horrifying to behold.