TSUNAMI - DECEMBER 26 2004 - INDIAN OCEAN - ORIGIN -ENERGY TRANSFER AND IMPACT

At 7.58 on December 26th 2004 a powerful earthquake (9.0 magnitude) erupted beneath the ocean floor about 250 kilometres SSE of the island of Sumatra. This earthquake occurred along the line of plate edges. The earthquake caused part of the sea floor to rise. The displaced water cause the ocean surface to swell and tsunami waves radiated from this swelling zone. The maps show how these waves transferred energy from the area and caused the radial pattern of wave trains throughout the Indian Ocean. Fourteen countries were impacted by the tsunami waves as they made landfall. The tsunami waves heaped as they approached shorelines so that when they broke onto the land they caused massive flooding and destruction. This unit concentrates on the Province of Aceh which was very close to the earthquake source. About 240,000 people were killed by the tsunami waves making this event one of the most destructive natural disasters on record. This unit is the first in a series on tsunamis of the 21st century. It is designed to give students - with some assistance from teachers using the screened pages - the opportunity to develop their own material on the origin, development and impacts of the 2004 tsunami. The approach which is mainly visual gives teachers flexibility in the way they use the material. 1. You could use the material in a class lesson structure discussing the visuals and answering questions set on the worksheets. 2. You could provide the students with the attachment pages and have them develop their own answers. 3. You could divide the material into 3 sections and gather information on the cause, development and impact of the tsunami. 4. You could use this material to support wider curriculum units on natural disasters or units dealing with continental drift and plate tectonics. This choice will depend on the age of your students and their interpretation skills. There will be a follow up unit on the 2018 tsunami that impacted on the island of Sulawesi Indonesia.