2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami - Essay Example TOver the years the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and the Tsunami has been named in different ways. Due to the Tsunami South Asian countries were deeply affected and that is why it is also known as South Asian tsunami. It is very important to know the reasons behind this mammoth natural calamity. The earthquake and the Tsunami took place because two Tectonic Plates sub ducted with each other. In more precise way, India Plate sub ducted with Burma Plate. This subduction caused a cascading effect of destructive Tsunami. Those Tsunamis shattered the countries bordering with the Indian Ocean. Lives of the coastal communities were significantly hampered by the gigantic tides. Tides were as high as 30mtrs and inundated different coastal belts of several South Asian countries. Indonesia was the worst hit country because epicentre was nearby the Sumatra only. According to the seismographic readings, it was the 3rd largest earthquake. The severity of the earthquake was backed up by the duratio n of its tremor. The quake continued for almost 10 minutes. The hypocenter of the quake was located almost 160 KM far from the western part of the Sumatra. The magnitude of the earthquake was so severe that the tremor was felt simultaneously in different countries like India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Singapore and Thailand. According to the findings of different researches, collision of Tectonic Plates removed enormous amount of water and created significantly powerful shock waves in the various direction which caused this catastrophic disaster.