Economic Costs Of 2004 Tsunami

Economic Costs of the 2004 Tsunami 3 months later – 10 years later

Introduction

Earthquakes and tsunami’s, these natural disasters cause more damage economically, environmentally, socially and mentally than any other natural disaster, even the words alone strike fear into the hearts of thousands of people all around the world. In December 26th, 2004 at approximately 8:50am, one of the biggest ever recorded earthquakes shook the ocean floor. Most earthquakes have a magnitude of 6.0 - 6.9, but this was no regular earthquake, this one had a magnitude of 9.0 – 9.3 causing the whole planet to vibrate at least 1cm, and triggering tsunamis that travelled to Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Malaysia, Madagascar, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, and at 8:58 waves up to from 10m – 30m waves were being hurled at thousands of helpless tourist’s and civilian’s. That day there was over 250,000 casualties and is now considered one of the most devastating natural disasters of all time.

Location

the tsunami had affected 14 countries. The countries the tsunamis had reached were India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles. It also affected up to five million people Causes

Beneath our feet the earth is divided into 7 pieces of the earth’s crust and the uppermost mantle, these are called Tectonic plates. Before the earthquake had occurred the Indo-Australian Plate was subducting below the Eurasian Plate causing more and more pressure to build up. Due to the magnitude of the earthquake it had triggered smaller earthquakes in countries as far as Alaska, and causing the Indo-Australian Plate to spring back into place causing the seafloor to uplift, displacing the seawater above, creating the monster tsunami.