FRONT PAGE
 NEWS .
 CLASSIFIED .
 DHAMMAWEB .
 SANDUN UYANA .
 ANTENNA .
 EVENTS DIARY .
 LONDON DIARY .
 FEATURES .
 LETTERS.

Sri Lanka together with many other nations in the Asian Region of the Bay of Bengal is reeling from the devastation of a mighty Tsunami which struck in the morning hours of Sunday December 28th along its coastal belt as outpourings of grief, consolation anf foreign aid are beginning to filter in and the Island Nation is gripped in apprehension and fear of further aftershocks.

This is a time for reconciliation, a time for the coming together of the people of the land in shedding their differences and uniting towards helping eachother to overcome their suffering and pain as a horrified world looks on at mother natures' fury which has unleashed itself in a perspective far superior to the attrocities man could inflict upon his fellow men as the Tsunami which blasted the region is said to have had the combined equivalent force of about 10,000 Atom Bombs .Consequently Sri Lanka together with her affected neighbours will face a long road towards recovery from the damage over a long period of time.

There is a tragic aftermath and a chilling nudge on the consciences of the meteorological and geological authorities in Sri Lanka which might suggest that the huge disastrous consequences of the massiveTsunami Tidal Waves might have been at least to a degree anticipated and the colossal loss of life which has resulted avoided or reduced had Sri Lanka as well as neighbouring India been part of of an international warning system designed to warn coastal communities about potentially deadly waves, which they were not according to world geological experts.The warning system is designed to alert nations in the path of such a Tsunami that potentially destructive waves may hit their coastlines within three to 14 hours.

Scientists have said that seismic networks recorded today’s massive earthquake, but without wave sensors in the region, it was not possible to determine the direction a tsunami would travel and consequently Sri Lanka, India and the other affected areas had no way of being sent any early warnings which the dire eventualities attest to as hapless victims were caught in the maelstrom and their lives snuffed out in horrible fashion or maimed and injured while the fortunate scrambled to safety with amazing stories to relate about their experiences.There are thousands unaccounted for at present as the death toll rises by the hour as the fourth largest Earthquake Tsunami in recorded history descended upon its unsuspecting victims going about their daily business as beaches have been turned into open mortuaries and the wailing of grieving voices of people searching for or recognizing perished loved ones rent the air of these tropical beaches in an atmosphere of desolate helplessness.

Ironically A single wave station south of the earthquake’s epicentre registered Tsunami activity less than 2 feet (60 centimetres) high heading south toward Australia, according to the latest reports and speculations are rife about the diversity of what such a recording might have had in the best interests of the now affected areas had they been warned which unfortunately did not manifest itself to their advantage in what may perhaps go down in history as the greatest faux pas of meteorological and seismic monitoring for which the Nations affected have probably only themselves to blame notwithstanding the assumed conclusioin that the areas affected , primarily Sri Lanka and South India were never endangered rather erroneously and the price paid!

The following details and analytical comments have been made available courtesy of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado and its special analyst and geophysicist Mr.Waverly Pearson who has summed up this report together with excerpts of a specialized analysis by Mr. Charles McCreary. Director Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Honolulu Hawaii.
Quote:
"Some 5,300 people in India and Sri Lanka were among nearly 10,000 people killed after being hit by walls of water triggered by a tremendous earthquake early today off Sumatra.
The waves also struck resort beaches on the west coast of the Thailand’s south peninsula, killing hundreds. Although Thailand belongs to the international tsunami warning network, its west coast does not have the system’s wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.

The northern tip of the earthquake fault is located near the Andaman Islands, and tsunamis appear to have rushed eastward toward the Thai resort of Phuket this morning when the community was just stirring.

They had no tidal gauges and they had no warning and there are no buoys in the Indian Ocean where this tsunami occurred.”

The tsunami was triggered by the most powerful earthquake recorded in the past 40 years.

The earthquake, whose magnitude was a staggering 8.9, unleashed walls of water more than two storeys high to the west across the Bay of Bengal, slamming into coastal communities 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) away. Hours after the quake, Sumatra was struck by a series of powerful aftershocks.

The earthquake broke on a fault line deep off the Sumatra coast, running north and south for about 600 miles (965 kilometres) or as far north as the Andaman and Nicobar islands between India and Mynamar.

“It’s a huge rupture and it’s conceivable that the sea floor deformed all the way along that rupture, and that’s what initiates tsunamis.”

Tsunamis as large and destructive as today’s typically happen only a few times in a century.

A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of travelling ocean waves generated by geological disturbances near or below the ocean floor. With nothing to stop them, these waves can race across the ocean like the crack of a bullwhip, gaining momentum over thousands of miles.

Most are triggered by large earthquakes but they can be caused by landslides, volcanoes and even meteor impacts.

The waves are generated when geologic forces displace sea water in the ocean basin. The bigger the earthquake, the more the Earth’s crust shifts and the more seawater begins to move.

Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific because the ocean basin is rimmed by the Ring of Fire, a long chain of the Earth’s most seismically active spots. Marine geologists recently have determined that under certain conditions, the US East Coast and other heavily populated coastlines also could be vulnerable.

In a tsunami, waves typically radiate out in directions opposite from the seismic disturbance. In the case of the Sumatra quake, the seismic fault ran north to south beneath the ocean floor, while the tsunami waves shot out west and east.

Tsunamis are distinguished from normal coastal surf by their great length and speed. A single wave in a tsunami series might be 100 miles (160 kilometres) long and race across the ocean at 600 mph (965 kph). When it approaches a coastline, the wave slows dramatically, but it also rises to great heights because the enormous volume of water piles up in shallow coastal bays.

And unlike surf, which is generated by wind and the gravitational tug of the moon and other celestial bodies, tsunamis do not break on the coastline every few seconds. Because of their size, it might take an hour for another one to arrive.

Some tsunamis appear as a tide that doesn’t stop rising, while others are turbulent and savagely chew up the coast. Without instrumentation, so little is known about this tsunami that researchers must wait for eyewitness accounts to determine its characteristics.

It was a big tsunami, but it is hard to say exactly how many waves there were or what happened.

In the hours following an earthquake, tsunamis eventually lose their power to friction over the rough ocean bottom or simply as the waves spread out over the ocean’s enormous surface.

The international warning system was started in 1965, the year after tsunamis associated with a magnitude 9.2 quake which struck Alaska in 1964. It is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Member states include all the major Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America, as well as the Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand. It also includes France, which has sovereignty over some Pacific islands, and Russia.

However, India and Sri Lanka are not members. “That’s because tsunamis are much less frequent in the Indian Ocean.

The warning system analyses earthquake information from several seismic networks, including the US Geological Service. The seismic information is fed into computer models that “picture” how and where a tsunami might form. It dispatches warnings about imminent tsunami hazards, including predictions how fast the waves are travelling and their expected arrival times in specific geographic areas.

As the waves rush past tidal stations in the ocean, bulletins updating the tsunami warning are issued. Other models generate “inundation maps” of what areas could be damaged, and what communities might be spared.

Not all earthquakes generate tsunamis. The warning centre typically does not issue warnings for earthquakes below magnitude 7.0, which are still unusually powerful events." end quote

Perhaps both Sri Lanka, India and any other countries in the region who are not members should register immediately for membership of the International Warning System monitored and administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a safety measure for future catastrophies of this nature where at least a degree of human life may benefit from the decision regardless of the speculated possibilities of seismic activity and conjecture about the pros and cons of future manifestations!.

LankaWeb calls out for help of any kind both nationally and internationally towards easing the pain and suffering of all those affected by this terrible tragedy as the deep sense of loss and sadness is felt around the world and hopes that a degree of consolation and normalcy will return to these shattered lives in the very near future.

DISCLAIMER

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

Copyright © 1997-2001www.lankaweb.Com Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reproduction In Whole Or In Part Without Express Permission is Prohibited.