Wave of destruction

On December 26 2004, exactly 10 years ago, one of the greatest natural disasters humankind has seen hit parts of Asia and Africa. A massive earthquake near Indonesia unleashed a
tsunami that killed thousands of people across two continents and several islands. The world could only watch in horror as the death toll kept climbing. Even today many thousands
remain unaccounted for as the ofcial death toll stands at 227 898, about half the population of Luxembourg. The psychological effects remain. Many countries in the world were
affected because some of the worst-hit areas were popular with overseas tourists, among them South Africans

18 045

India, after 2.5h

Sri Lanka, after 3h

Thailand, after 2h

Waves begin to batter the coast of

India. The southern state of Tamil
Nadu is the worst hit. Salt water
contamination destroys arable land.
The Indian mainland states of Andhra
Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry also bear the brunt of the damage
and the Andaman and Nicobar islands
further east are swamped. Often, the
water recedes immediately, but leaves
behind destruction and death.

Waves begin to batter the coast of Sri

Lanka. At least a million people on the
island are directly affected, especially
people living along the south and east
coasts. Many of the dead are elderly.
Sickness spreads quickly because of
stagnant water and a lack of medical
facilities, destroyed in the tsunami. A
special train along the east coast is ripped
off the rails and dumped deep inland.
Almost all of the 1 700 passengers die.

Tourists and locals are swept off beaches and

carried out to sea. The southwestern coast of
Thailand is most badly affected with the tourist
island of Phuket, nearby islands and coastal areas
bearing the brunt. The situation on Phuket is
dramatic. Desperate people are stranded in trees, on
rooftops, and on toppled buses. Nearly 50 000 Thai
rescue workers start looking for survivors, many of
whom are foreign tourists.

5 640

35 322

647 599

21 411

516 150

8 212 8 457 7 000

Position of wave
after one hour

Deaths
Five hours

Somalia, after 7h

Four hours

Three hours

The tsunami reaches the east coast of

Africa. Somalia suffers the greatest destruction. Waves damage nearly 2 000 homes and
destroy 2 400 boats. Warnings enable
Tanzanian authorities to evacuate people
from most beaches before the waves arrive.
Damage along the coast is minimal but
several deaths are reported.

289

211

Injured

December 26
8am, Sumatra

Displaced

A massive earthquake
strikes off the coast of the
Indonesian island of
Sumatra on Sunday
morning. As the day and
week goes by the number
of deaths jumps to thousands, and then tens of
thousands, and then
hundreds of thousands.

5 000

Missing

Other affected
countries

South Africa

Maldives, after 4h

South Africa loses 17 nationals, most

of them tourists who had been
holidaying in Thailand. Families at
home can only wait in anguish for news
of their missing relatives. Sometimes
the news is good, but often families can
only hope for bodies to be recovered.
Many South African volunteers travel
to the disaster zone to assist with
humanitarian efforts there.
About a day after the earthquake,
some reports come in from people on
beaches in the Western Cape of a
sudden rise in sea levels of about one
metre, only to drop again. It seems as
if the waves of destruction had even
reached as far as South Africa.

The tsunami overruns the low-lying

islands of the Madives, killing 80 people.
Fifty-three of the 198 inhabited islands
suffer damage. Three-quarters of the
capital city, Male, is under water. The
tsunami causes extensive damage to
infrastructure, including freshwater
supplies. Many remote island atolls are
more severely affected. Whole islands are
washed out, necessitating the evacuation
of all residents.

108

26

15 000

How the tsunami was formed

The sudden vertical rise of the seabed by several metres during the earthquake displaced massive volumes of water, resulting in a tsunami that struck the coasts of the Indian
Ocean. The tsunami travels very fast in the deep sea, but slows down near the coast, creating massive, destructive waves.

Boeing 747

Water speed record Bullet train

Car

Sprinter

800km/h

500km/h

120km/h

36km/h

250km/h

India plate

100m

5 000m
Burma microplate

Sources: The Guardian, BBC, Der Spiegel, Al Jazeera, The Age, Die Burger, Express (UK)

Countries that
lost citizens
Sweden
Germany
Finland
UK
Switzerland
France
Austria
Norway
Denmark
Italy

554
539
179
143
106
95
86
84
45
40

Indonesia, after 1h
First tsunami slams into Sumatran coast.
Villages and towns are obliterated. The
northern province of Aceh is worst hit.
Some coastal villages are thought to have
lost more than 70% of their inhabitants.
According to the press spokesman of the
Meteorological and Geophysical Ofce in
Jakarta, Indonesia, the epicentre was about
66 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra and
about 25 kilometres below the surface of
the ocean and well below the ocean oor.
Shortly after the main quake, several severe
aftershocks followed.

167 736

500 000

The aftermath
When the 2004 tsunami struck, the Indian Ocean did not have a system to alert
residents of coastal areas that a tsunami was imminent.
In the aftermath of the disaster, scientists and governments, under the auspices of the
UN, began working on an early warning system for the region.
There are two possible warning systems: Pressure recorders and tide gauges.

Tide gauges
These are located on land and
monitor the surface of the water
with a system of tubes and oats.

Crust
Fault
line

500
200
75
13
2
2
1

Pressure recorders
The Deep-ocean Assessment and
Reporting of Tsunami (Dart) system
uses buoys and sensors stationed far
out to sea. A pressure recorder on
the sea bed measures the weight of
the water above it and sends its
ndings to a buoy on the surface.
The buoy monitors the surface
conditions and sends this, plus
the data from the sea bed, to a
satellite.

10m
500m

Myanmar
Madagascar
Malaysia
Tanzania
Seychelles
Bangladesh
Kenya

Mantle

Spreading the news

Most of the countries involved in
the 2004 tsunami have introduced
some kind of warning system
on beaches and escape routes.
Thailand has sirens (right) on
beaches and will also send alerts
via satellite.
HANLIE MALAN and ANDRE GOUWS, Graphics24