Posted by John Wilson on December 30, 2004 at 05:49:45 from 202.154.157.203 user hugo.
In Reply to: Tsunamis in south-east Asia posted by Prue Eckett on December 30, 2004 at 01:46:01:
The large earthquake was off the west coast of Aceh province, Sumatra, and the resultant Tsunami or “tidal wave” killed thousands in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other countries. Originally over 9500 dead, now in the (high) tens of thousands. And now there will be the problems of diseases and infection plus lack of medicines, food and water
The Pacific (unlike the Indian Ocean) has the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii (see website below), set up by the US National Weather Centre in 1949, which monitors seismic activity, and can give three to six hours warning of a tsunami following an earthquake.
In 1960 beaches were cleared on the East Coast of New Zealand after an earthquake off Chile (thousands of km away, but nothing in between!). There have been 9 tsunamis in the Pacific resulting in deaths in the past 12 years, notably a 1998 tsunami which struck the northwestern coast of PNG, killing 2000 people.