Five years ago, on December 26, 2004, a 9.3 magnitude undersea earthquake shook the Indian Ocean, causing huge waves that swept the coasts of 13 countries, leaving behind 230,000 deaths. This natural disaster ranked fifth in terms of the number of lost human lives. About 45,000 dead were never found. Five years have passed - restoration work is still ongoing - 140,000 houses, 1,700 schools, 3,800 temples and 3,700 km of roads were built. Collected in this issue are photographs of survivors, restoration work, and several before and after photographs.
(32 photos total)
1. A resident of Aceh province cries during a prayer in memory of the victims of the tsunami on the fifth anniversary of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2009 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh suffered the most, as the province's main city was closest to the epicenter. The tsunami reached it first and caused about 130,000 deaths. In 11 countries, 230,000 people died, making this one of the worst disasters in history. (Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)
2. Foreign tourists who choose a beach holiday during the first wave of six tsunami waves at Hat Rai Lei Beach near Krabi in southern Thailand on December 26, 2004. (AFP / AFP / Getty Images)
4. (a) Five years later, a resident of the city collects grass for his goats in the same place on December 4, 2009. (REUTERS / Beawiharta)
11.Prayer and release offerings into the ocean during a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami at Ulhi Lheu Beach in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, December 20, 2009. (AP Photo / Heri Juanda)
12. This photo, taken on December 6, 2009, shows children performing a traditional dance at a shelter in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. Of the 230,000 death tolls in the tsunami, more than half died in Aceh, Sumatra, leaving at least 5,200 orphans with whom child psychologists have worked for a long time. (AP Photo / Achmad Ibrahim)
15. Thai authorities make a final check of the tsunami buoy at Cape Panwa in Phuket, southern Thailand, December 1, 2009. Five years after the tsunami that devastated the Asian coast, experts fear that a new generation of coastal residents will be ill-prepared for other huge waves as memories of the tragedy fade away. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL / AFP / Getty Images)
17. Dutch tourist Hans Kuiper photographs images of foreign tourists who wanted to celebrate the New Year in a resort hotel and were killed in the 2004 tsunami. Photo taken at Bang Muang Cemetery in Phang Nga province north of Phuket in Thailand on December 26, 2009. (REUTERS / Chaiwat Subprasom)
20. Tsunami survivor Abhilash Jeyaraj, also known as "Child 81," sits in a chair at home while waiting to leave for school in Kurukkalmadam, Batticaloa District, Nov.23, 2009. The 2004 tsunami brought this "child 81" international fame, but the parents of the boy, who was only two months old at the time of the tragedy, say that the fame brought them only misery and unwanted attention. The surviving child was found in the rubble on the coast of Sri Lanka. Soon after, nine pairs of parents came for him, each claiming to be their child. (REUTERS / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)
23. Red Cross volunteers sit with open umbrellas depicting the faces of smiling orphans left without parents in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the fifth anniversary of the disaster at the Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh December 26, 2009. (REUTERS / Beawiharta)
Many people are afraid to travel to Thailand because of the terrible natural phenomenon of the tsunami. Of course, this is dangerous, but is life in an ordinary city less dangerous? Car traffic, terrorism, criminals, etc. Still, if such fear exists, you can choose an island by the sea that is safe. In the east of Thailand, the islands are located in the Gulf of Thailand, the Pacific Ocean, from which it follows that this is not an open ocean and there cannot be a tsunami.
These islands include:
- (Pattaya) - (mainland, not an island)
- (Ko Chang),
- (Ko Kut),
- (Koh Samui),
- (Koh Phangan),
- (Koh Thao).
The last tsunami in Thailand was on December 26, 2004. The large island of Phuket and the adjacent islands, for example, the popular ones, Bambu Island, James Bond Island, Chicken, and others, have suffered from this phenomenon. If the large island of Phuket and the province of Krabi were partially affected, i.e. locally, then the small islands are not at all lucky. The wave was 10-15 meters high, so boats and fragments of houses were found on the mountains in the famous Phi Phi Lei Bay.
On islands and in places that are under the threat of a tsunami, there are always signs indicating which direction to run in case of a tsunami.
Causes of the tsunami in Thailand
The tsunami in Thailand comes from large earthquakes in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, they do not always have time to inform people about it or are afraid to panic, or they are irresponsible in people's lives. In 2004, in Phuket there were all the necessary radars and sensors that could capture a large wave, but for some reason no one announced this information, and more than 400 thousand people died! In the Indian Ocean itself, there was no warning system at that time and it is quite possible that the existing sensors might not work.
During the tsunami in Phuket, there was the grandson of the King of Thailand, who also died. This can only indicate that the Thai authorities themselves did not know about what was happening. 
After this terrible disaster, the Thai authorities took the safety of people seriously. Now in the Indian Ocean there is an alarm system and it was necessary to test its operation in April 2012, when there were powerful tremors near Indonesia.
Then the beaches of Phuket were emptied instantly, a siren screamed, security guards did not allow the beach, and they also evacuated the people present on the beach and woke up sleeping people, warned and persuaded them to go to the mountains in every possible way.
Brief description of the resorts minimally exposed to the threat of tsunami
Pattaya Is a tourist town filled with Russians. People come here who are eager to get acquainted with the prostitution of Thailand, or rather with the transvestment. The sea amazes with its uncleanness and seething life. This resort is not for those who want to relax and not hear Russian speech throughout their vacation.
Koh Chang - a quiet, remote, romantic island, where with such pleasure you can separate from the whole world and just live for your pleasure, reveling in the beauty of the island and the ocean.
Koh Kut - a paradise place, also not crowded, with a beautiful clean ocean and prankster monkeys.
Koh Samui - a large island, civilized, quiet and at the same time "bubbling" with life. Every opportunity opens up here: entertainment, bars, cafes, nightlife, clear ocean and even a quiet life - depending on the choice of location on the island.
Koh Phangan - the island where the Full moon party is held. The island is located so that at night on a full moon, as light as day. Drinks, dances and fun on the ocean shore are poured and mixed in buckets.
Koh Tao - this place is reminiscent of the adventures of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. How diverse is the underwater world! Round algae, corals, crabs, fish of various sizes and deep blue pungent water! This island is designed for tranquility, diving and snorkeling.
BANGKOK, 26 Dec - RIA Novosti, Evgeny Belenky. Ten years ago, on December 26, 2004, six thousand people died in resorts in southern Thailand as a result of the devastating tsunami that swept the coastal strip of the Indian Ocean. More than half of the dead were foreign tourists, including Russians. Tourist paradise in the south of Thailand within one hour turned into sheer hell.
Indian Ocean Tsunami - Ten Years LaterOn December 26, 2004, an underwater earthquake of magnitude, according to various estimates, from 9.1 to 9.3 moved the tectonic plates of the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami immediately hit the shores of Simelue Island, Sumatra, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Africa.Phuket
Arriving in Phuket the night before and spending the night looking for surviving Russians in hospitals in Phuket and five surrounding provinces, on the morning of December 27, driving along a relatively intact section of the embankment in the Patong Beach area, we first saw in the light of day and realized the scale of the destruction. Completely collapsed and dilapidated front line houses, cars half protruding from the third floor windows, and a small car wrapped around a cracked concrete pillar so that the front bumper was in contact with the rear. The bodies of the dead were no longer on the streets, there was only debris from the wooden buildings demolished by the wave and twisted cars and motorcycles, and from this the picture became even more terrible: the imagination completed the missing. On Patong, the wave was "only" up to three to five meters high, but its speed at the moment of impact reached 500 kilometers per hour. On the embankment stood palm trees, bare as lamp posts, not broken by the wave, but completely devoid of leaves.
Phuket suffered less damage than the mainland coast of neighboring Phanga province or Phi Phi Island in Krabi province, and there were fewer deaths. But it was in Phuket that on the day of the tsunami there was the largest number of Russians, more than 900 people, and two of them died.
On December 28, in one of the Phuket hospitals, the body of a young woman from Moscow was found, who had come to rest with her four-year-old son and on the day of the tsunami refused an excursion inland and went to the beach with her child. The body of her son was found in another hospital the next day, and together with the visiting relatives of the victims, Russian diplomats and local doctors performed a visual identification, which was then confirmed by identification on dental cards. On the island of Phuket itself, none of the Russians died again.
Phuket has become a survivor assistance and identification center for all surrounding provinces. On the first day, the Thai authorities provided a plane to fly from Bangkok to Phuket to consular workers of those countries whose citizens were in the disaster zone. On the third day after the tsunami, the evacuation mechanism was already in full swing: a transfer camp for foreign victims in Phuket, free flights to Bangkok, refugee camps in Bangkok, from which tsunami victims were sent home.
All the bodies of people who died both on the island itself and in neighboring provinces were taken to Phuket. There were no places in the morgues, so the bodies were laid in plastic bags and sheets on the floor of the hospital basements where there were such, or on the ground in the courtyards of hospitals and on the territory of several Buddhist monasteries. Just before the New Year, the first 12 refrigerated containers arrived in Phuket, but even a week later, when there were already several dozen of them, there were still not enough containers, and a decision was made to temporarily bury the unidentified bodies. Most of the bodies found after several days in the water were not visually identifiable. A few years after the tsunami, there was an operation to identify the dead by DNA.
There was a lot of confusion: for example, Russian diplomats had to defend the body of a Muscovite who died in Phuket, which suddenly began to be claimed by colleagues from Italy: an elderly Italian recognized her daughter from a photograph. The body had already been identified by the relatives of the Russian woman and identified by the doctors, so the Russian side offered the Italian to carry out a DNA comparison. The analysis was done in Rome and showed a negative result, after which the Italian diplomats were forced to apologize to the Russians. Then the German rescuers working with refrigerated trucks introduced their own body numbering system, "canceling" the previous one used by Israeli rescuers who worked before them, and had to open the refrigerated trucks one by one to find identified bodies that needed to be shipped home. It turned out, however, that the neat Germans did compile a list of matching numbers, but for some reason they decided to glue it not to the outside, but to the inside of the door of one of the 18 containers standing nearby.
Phanga Province
In the Khao Lak area of \u200b\u200bPhanga province on the mainland, a forty-minute drive from Phuket, a strip of beach with several five-star hotels on the second day after the tsunami looked like an episode from the dream of a crazy surrealist. There was no asphalt road that used to lead from the highway to the Sofitel Khao Lak Hotel. In its place was a broken and washed-out dirt road. Along it, on the branches of absolutely bare trees, there were mattresses, mini-refrigerators from the rooms, safes. The concrete and brick buildings of the hotel survived, but they looked like some giant rabid cat had ripped off paint and plaster from the first to the third floor with its claws. The piles on which the buildings had been erected had been exposed, and beneath them eerie, almost black water darkened. Paths of plywood boards were laid between the hulls, along which the Thai sailors leading the rescue operation moved. A wave 15 meters high here passed inland for almost two kilometers.
“We have collected most of the bodies, but not all bodies have been removed here yet, some under buildings, some under plywood shields. We had to put these shields on the dead here and there so that we could collect and transport other bodies, from the beach and from the pools. ", - said the officer in charge of the operation.
It was in the Sofitel that seven out of ten Russian tsunami victims died. A family of three from Buryatia, a girl guide from St. Petersburg who came to discuss their vacation program with them, a young couple with a daughter from Moscow.
Another Russian died in the nearby Grand Diamond Hotel. He left the hotel building to the beach, while his family stayed in the room and survived.
Survivors of the Sofitel described how powerful whirlpools tore people out of the rooms on the first floor through the window panes shattered by the first wave of waves. An elderly woman from Kazakhstan with her one-year-old grandson survived because the bed they were lying on rose to the ceiling. Grandmother and grandson took turns breathing air from the air pocket formed there. within fifteen minutes. Another grandson of this woman, an eleven-year-old boy, having taken the shock of the wave at the door of his hotel building - he returned from the beach for swimming goggles - also survived, although he broke his ribs on the statues that stood between the buildings. His last memory before the blow was his father and mother, running along the beach from the wave towards him, who already knew that they would not have time to escape, and put all their efforts into warning their son: "Run, run up!"
1,500 Russians survived the tsunami in southern Thailand
The emergency headquarters at the Russian embassy in Bangkok worked around the clock, receiving 2,000 phone calls a day. The first list, drawn up by the headquarters, included 1,500 Russians, presumably in the provinces that suffered a disaster.
All subsequent days, up to January 6, when this list was "closed", there was a search for each mentioned in it separately. Names were crossed out one by one only after a double-checked confirmation that the person was alive and well. Most of the names were "closed" by the Bangkok headquarters, which received calls from relatives and the wanted people themselves. The rest were searched for and found by Russian diplomats who flew to Phuket on the evening of December 26 - in hospitals, in hotels, in evacuees' camps.
From the first day in Phuket, they were helped by volunteers - employees of travel agencies, Russians living in different parts of Thailand, the mother of one of the Russian citizens who disappeared in the Sofitel, who came to look for her son and did not want to sit back and wait for news, journalists from Russian TV channels and newspapers who came to cover the aftermath of the tsunami.
Gradually the lists melted away, people were, and at the same time another list began to be drawn up - for evacuation flights of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. The very first flight, which brought bottled drinking water to Phuket before the New Year (it was chronically lacking on the island), Russian diplomats managed to send home more than 80 Russians and citizens of neighboring countries, including Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
There was a third list: those who were considered missing, but due to the circumstances of their whereabouts at the time of the tsunami and testimony, most likely died. On January 8th, this list was finalized. There are ten names left. It took years to identify the dead. The list has not changed, only the people named in it have ceased to be considered missing today and have become officially dead. Here are their names: Oksana Lipuntsova and her four-year-old son Artem, Sergey Borgolov, Natalya Borgolova, their son Vladislav Borgolov, Maria Gabunia, Olga Gabunia, Evgeny Mikhalenkov, Alexandra Gulida, Vitaly Kimstach.
Before starting a trip, it is very important to know in advance everything about the safety of the place in which you plan to rest or live for some time.
Despite the fact that Thailand is one of the safest countries in Southeast Asia in terms of crime, it must be remembered that this country is located between two huge oceans. One of the biggest and most uncontrollable hazards to which many tourist areas in Thailand are exposed is the tsunami.
For informational purposes (in no way to scare) I would like to talk about a terrible event that happened in Thailand and in many countries of the Indian Ocean basin on December 26, 2004. Tsunami, which originated as a result of an earthquake at the bottom of the Indian Ocean near Indonesia, and which covered Thailand and 14 other countries, killing from 225 to 300 thousand people, citizens of 60 countries. This natural disaster is the 6th most fatal in human history. The most dire consequences were in Indonesia, in Sri Lanka, in India, and in Thailand, the largest number of foreigners died, especially in Phuket.
Let's hope that this story will never repeat itself, but do not forget - forewarned is forearmed. Many victims could have been avoided if the people who found themselves at the epicenter of events knew at least something about the tsunami.
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Where do tsunamis come from
Tsunamis are long waves generated most often due to underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and less often due to any underwater explosions (nuclear tests, meteorites, etc.). Tsunamis do not pose a threat to seagoing vessels in deep ocean areas. Despite the fact that waves move at speeds of up to 1000 km / h, their height in the open ocean usually does not exceed 50 centimeters or 1 meter. Reaching shallow water the tsunami loses its speed and increases its height to 20-40 meters. This is the reason that tsunamis cannot always be seen in advance. Even satellite tracking systems cannot always identify a hazard in advance. In some cases, a tsunami can occur even without a well-defined wave, like a series of rapid ebb and flow. The danger in the first place does not come from the wave itself, but from an incredibly large, wide and powerful stream of water, which with force falls on the shore.
Why 30-meter storm waves are safer than 5-meter tsunami
Sometimes on the coasts of the oceans, storm waves can reach impressive sizes, but this never leads to the same large-scale flooding and damage as during a tsunami. This is due to several factors:
- Unlike a storm, when the upper layers of the ocean are broken on the coast, the tsunami "attacks" the land with the entire water column, so the kinetic energy of the tsunami is thousands of times higher than the energy splashing onto the coast during a powerful storm.
- The tsunami wave is thousands of kilometers wide, and it hits the entire coast, while storm waves are rarely longer than 50-100 meters. On the map at the beginning of the article, you can see how the tsunami spreads radially (in circles) with its epicenter on the seabed near the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
- Storms are almost never sudden, and only the most modern ocean tracking systems can predict tsunamis. But not all potentially dangerous coasts are equipped with such expensive systems.
- Due to their power, tsunamis penetrate much deeper into the mainland, destroying infrastructure unprepared for such a scourge and also provoking man-made disasters, which only aggravate the scale of the disaster.
How to save yourself during a tsunami
In 85% of cases, a tsunami is preceded by a powerful underwater earthquake with a magnitude of more than 7.0 on the Richter scale. However, the source may be too far from the tsunami zone, in which case no earthquake will be felt on the coast. In the event of tremors in potentially dangerous tsunami zones, the following measures must be taken urgently:
- Without waiting for warnings (there may not be any), collect documents, valuables and relatives and leave the danger zone, warning the maximum possible number of people about the danger.
- As quickly as possible to climb a hill or go away from the ocean.
- Many potentially dangerous areas have special signs showing the shortest escape route.
- Remember that a strong and sharp ebb is a clear sign of an impending tsunami. Before the decisive blow, the tsunami takes over all coastal water. Before the big tsunamis, most of the victims, who know practically nothing about this natural phenomenon, remain on the shore, collect fish that did not have time to leave with the sharp tide, or simply admire the unprecedented sight. To do so is extremely rash!
- During a tsunami, a shock in several waves is possible, and the first wave will not necessarily be the most powerful. If one wave has already hit the shore, you must continue to keep in a safe place for the next few hours.
The film about the tsunami "Impossible" ("Lo imposible")
Then I watched a film based on the real events of that very day (December 26, 2004), and decided that it was necessary to write about this tsunami. Why? Because the film turned out to be a good drama about the fate of a particular family, but the authors did not reveal the main thing. And the main thing, I think, in this story is not whether one particular family was able to escape, but why the tsunami of 2004 provoked such a number of victims. And here's why it happened:
- The inaction of the Thai authorities, who knew that at 8 am there was an earthquake in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra, which a little "troubled" the Thai resort of Phuket. The tsunami struck the same Phuket, as well as neighboring provinces at about 10 am. That is, it was 2 hours to evacuate people, but no one did anything. This is a complete failure!
- Lack of knowledge of the local population and, especially, tourists, how to behave during a tsunami. Nobody really knew anything - where to run, what to do ... In principle, there were no warning systems as such! And this despite the fact that the western coast of Thailand, and especially the tourist area of \u200b\u200bPhuket (one of the most popular resorts in Thailand) is located in a very dangerous ocean area, where a large number of earthquakes occur. In general - again the failure of the authorities.
In their justification, we can say that tsunamis in the Indian Ocean are extremely rare - the previous tsunami took place after the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883! That is, it was the unexpected tsunami in a number of countries in the Indian Ocean basin that caused such large-scale consequences - destruction and death of a huge number of people.
Perhaps this emphasis is lacking in the film. In my opinion, it was necessary to show that much could have been prevented. Encourage people to be considerate in the future. This does not mean sitting at home and not traveling - it means being forewarned and knowing what to do in an emergency. And even if this does not save every single one in the event of such a development of events, it will help many. People need to know what to do in a critical situation during a tsunami.
The very story of the film is that a family with three sons finds themselves in the epicenter of a tsunami. Each of them is trying to escape, help each other and find other relatives. Unlike all the contrived disaster films (hello, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow), The Impossible doesn't have super special effects and an incredibly large budget. The emphasis is on the storyline, the actors' play and their inimitable emotions. In general, a really worthy drama, in my opinion, and I have already written about the shortcomings above.
Tsunami in Phuket - still from the movie "Lo Imposible" 
Tsunami in Phuket 2004 (stills from the movie "Impossible") In this article, I deliberately do not use photographs from various sources that illustrate genuine footage of real destruction. I would not like the article to be negative. On the contrary, the purpose of the recording is to tell people about what happened and why it happened; to honor the memory of innocent victims; try to figure out how to avoid such losses in the future if the tsunami reoccurs ...
After the disaster in 2004, Thai authorities announced the creation of a special tsunami tracking system. For this purpose, special buoys were placed in the ocean, which react to the rapid movement of water masses. Exactly the same systems are successfully operating off the coast of Japan and the Hawaiian Islands. Also, the coastlines of the Andaman Sea in Thailand were equipped with warning signs of possible danger with a recommendation in Thai and English: “Zone of possible tsunami. In the event of an earthquake, climb a hill or evacuate inland. "
A warning sign about a possible tsunami near Ao Nang (found "the cleanest"))) By the way, if you are going to Thailand, and you are very much afraid of this potential tsunami danger, then you can choose safe resorts located in the Gulf of Thailand (South China Sea of \u200b\u200bthe Pacific Ocean basin). The eastern shores of Thailand, namely such resorts as Ko Chang, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Samui, Phangan, Ko Tao, are reliably protected from the tsunami by neighboring islands, peninsulas and continents. There is a tsunami threat in Thailand only in the western resorts located on the coast of the Andaman Sea. The most "dangerous" in terms of the likelihood of tsunamis are the provinces of Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi.
Video, Thailand, Tsunami Thailand (Koh Phi Phi) - 26.12.2004
Eyewitness videos. Tsunami in Thailand on December 26, 2004.
The Indian Ocean undersea earthquake on December 26, 2004 at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) triggered a tsunami that has been recognized as the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. The magnitude of the earthquake was, according to various estimates, from 9.1 to 9.3. This is the third strongest earthquake in the entire history of observation.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Indian Ocean, north of the island of Simeolue, located off the northwestern coast of the island of Sumatra (Indonesia). The tsunami reached the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, southern India, Thailand and other countries. The wave height exceeded 15 meters. The tsunami caused tremendous destruction and death toll, even in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 6,900 kilometers from epicenter.
Killed, according to various estimates, from 225 thousand to 300 thousand people. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the death toll is 227,898. The true death toll is unlikely to ever become known, as many people were carried away by water into the ocean.
Tsunami spread across the Indian Ocean
The original earthquake north of Shimolue Island was estimated at 6.8 magnitudes on the Richter scale. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) estimated it at 8.5 magnitudes immediately after the incident. The moment magnitude, which more accurately estimates earthquakes of this magnitude, was 8.1. Upon further analysis, this score was gradually increased to 9.0. In February 2005, the magnitude of the earthquake was 9.3. The PTWC accepted this new estimate, while the USGS estimates the magnitude of the earthquake to be 9.1.
Since 1900, recorded earthquakes of comparable strength have been the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960 (magnitude 9.3-9.5), the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 in Ice Bay (9.2), the 1952 earthquake near the southern coast of Kamchatka ( 9.0). Each of these earthquakes also triggered a tsunami (in the Pacific Ocean), but the number of deaths was significantly less (several thousand people at most) - perhaps because the population density in those areas is quite low, and the distances to more populated coasts are quite large ...
The hypocenter of the main earthquake was located at the point with coordinates 3.316 ° N. w., 95.854 ° E (3 ° 19 ′ N, 95 ° 51.24 ′ E), about 160 km west of Sumatra, at a depth of 30 km from sea level (initially it was reported about 10 km from sea level ). It is the western end of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the earthquake belt that is home to 81% of the world's largest earthquakes.
The earthquake was unusually large in a geographic sense. There was a shift of about 1200 km (according to some estimates - 1600 km) of the rock over a distance of 15 m along the subduction zone, as a result of which the Indian Plate moved under the Burma Plate. The shift was not one-time, but was split into two phases over a period of several minutes. Seismographic data indicate that the first phase formed a fault of about 400 km by 100 km, located about 30 km from sea level. The fault was formed at a speed of about 2 km / s, starting from the Ase coast towards the northwest for about 100 seconds. Then there was a pause of about 100 seconds, after which the fault continued to form northward towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Indian Plate is part of the larger Indo-Australian Plate that lines the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, moving northeast at an average speed of 6 cm per year. The Indian Plate adjoins the Burma Plate, which is considered part of the larger Eurasian Plate, forming the Sunda Trench. At this point, the Indian Plate moves under the Burma Plate, on which the Nicobar Islands, Andaman Islands and the northern part of Sumatra are located. The Indian Plate gradually slides deeper and deeper under the Burma Plate, until the rising temperature and increasing pressure turns the raised edge of the Indian Plate into magma, which is eventually ejected upward through volcanoes (the so-called Volcanic Arc). This process is interrupted by plate adhesion for several centuries until the build-up pressure results in a major earthquake and tsunami.
With the sharp advancement of tectonic plates, the seabed also rises several meters, thereby giving rise to destructive tsunami waves. Tsunamis do not have a point center as such, which is mistakenly assumed from illustrations of their distribution. Tsunamis propagate radially from the entire fault, approximately 1200 km long.
