The Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami Case Study 2022

Running Head: THE INDIAN OCEAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
THE INDIAN OCEAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
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Surname 1
The body of salt water that covers almost one-fifth of the entire ocean area of the world.
According to the study, Indian Ocean is the smallest and geographically recent and with most
complex physical location comparing the other three major oceans. The ocean stretches almost
6,200 miles among the southern range of Africa and Australia. Without considering the marginal
seas, the areas of the Indian Ocean covers include 28,360,000 square miles1. Considering the
world map, the Indian Ocean is surrounded by Iran, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan (North), Malay
Peninsula, Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and Australia (East), Antarctica (South), Africa and
Arabian Peninsula (West). Takewak and Izuru (2013) mentioned that the climate of the Indian
ocean is one of the unique kinds. The main component of its climate is the large scale Tropical
Warm Pool. During the interaction with the atmosphere this warm pool affects the climate
globally as well as regionally. Asia prevents the heat and ventilation of the thermocline of the
Indian Ocean2. It also drives the monsoon of the Indian Ocean. Hence, the paper aims to dig out
more information about Indian Ocean and the causes of natural disasters including Tsunami and
Earthquake in this region. The paper will provide more stress on the Tsunami on Indian Ocean
in the year 2004 along with its consequences.
1 Puthezhath, ARJUN S. "Identification of thermal fronts in the Arabian sea using MODIS-SST data." Kerala
University Of Fisheries And Ocean Studies. Panangad (2014).
2 Hutchison, Emma. "A global politics of pity? Disaster imagery and the emotional construction of solidarity after
the 2004 Asian tsunami." International Political Sociology 8, no. 1 (2014): 1-19

Surname 2
Figure 1: Indian Ocean
Sources: (Álvarez et al.)
The crust of the mother Earth ranges from 5 to 70 Kilometers. The crust refers to a kind
of think yet hard layer that floats above the hotter and denser rock of the mantle. The several
divisions of the crust are named as tectonic plates. These tectonic plates are continuously moving
and grinding beside one and another with the scheduled boundaries termed as faults. During the
movement beside one and another, these tectonic plates hurdle on uneven areas of rock. Their
locking position is called Velcro3. However, it should be remembered that during the locking
position the plates do not stop their movement through dragging at the intertwined sections. This
dragging can generate a further crack on the crust of the Earth, generate increased number of
faults near the boundaries of the plates. The earthquake occurs during the built-up pressure along
any particular fault that become strengthened that the pressure that hold the rocks together. After
this, the rocks of both the sides of the fault rip apart4. This movement can occur sometimes with
3 Crooks, A., Croitoru, A., Stefanidis, A. and Radzikowski, J., 2013. # Earthquake: Twitter as a distributed sensor
system. Transactions in GIS, 17(1), pp.124-147.
4 Løvholt, Finn, Neysa J. Setiadi, Joern Birkmann, Carl B. Harbitz, Claudia Bach, Nishara Fernando, G. Kaiser, and
Farrokh Nadim. "Tsunami risk reduction–are we better prepared today than in 2004?." International journal of
disaster risk reduction 10 (2014): 127-142.

Surname 3
a supersonic speed. Both the sides of the fault passing one another leave a pent-up pressure.
These energy from the divisions radiates outward covering all the direction and involves the
surface area also that is felt like an earthquake.
The geophysicist Løvholt (2014) mentioned that the tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust
slide on a regular basis. The way the faults release the preserved energy is observed differently
during each and every earthquake. Every earthquake is not identical and the effects of the
earthquakes are not same always. According to the researchers there is no regularity connected
with the activities of earthquake5. The large earthquakes often succeeded by some aftershocks.
These aftershocks provide smaller quakes which are the outcome of the main shock and the
adjustment of the crusts. Scientists and geophysicist can target or find out the source of the
earthquake by measuring these aftershocks. According to the research, during the last 7 years the
southern region of Indian ocean is observed with 2 experiences of earthquakes.
Figure 2: Rate of earthquakes within past 7 years around the Indian Ocean
5 Álvarez, Orlando, Silvina Nacif, Mario Gimenez, Andres Folguera, and Carla Braitenberg. "GOCE derived
vertical gravity gradient delineates great earthquake rupture zones along the Chilean margin." Tectonophysics 622
(2014): 198-215.