G07: I&S Forces of Nature: Tsunami Investigation

In December 2004 a massive undersea earthquake unleashed a catastrophic tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The series of immense ocean waves caused widespread destruction and loss in several countries on the ocean’s rim.

In March 2011 Japan was struck by a powerful underwater earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Honshu, the country’s main island. The quake caused widespread damage on land and triggered a series of large tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of Japan, most notably northeastern Honshu. The tsunami also caused a major nuclear accident at a power station along the Pacific coast.

The tsunami saw a vast amount of material washed out to sea - about 20 million tonnes. Read these stories of objects from Japan washing up on these distant shores, some of which have later been reconciled with their owners. (BBC, 09.03.16)

Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–11, also called Canterbury earthquakes, series of tremors that occurred within and near the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Canterbury Plains region from early September 2010 to late December 2011. The severest of those events were the earthquake (magnitude from 7.0 to 7.1) that struck on September 4, 2010, and the large, destructive aftershock (magnitude 6.3) that occurred on February 22, 2011.

At 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused severe damage in Christchurch and Lyttelton, killing 185 people and injuring several thousand.

On 22 December 2018, a devastating tsunami struck Sunda Strait, Indonesia without warning, leaving 437 dead and thousands injured along the western Java and southern Sumatra coastlines. Synthetic aperture radar and broadband seismic observations demonstrate that a small, <~0.2 km3 landslide on the southwestern flank of the actively erupting volcano Anak Krakatau generated the tsunami.

The deadly tsunami in Indonesia was triggered by a chunk of the Anak Krakatau volcano slipping into the ocean, officials have confirmed, amid calls for a new early warning system that can detect volcanic eruptions.

Both sides of Indonesia’s Sunda Strait – Java on the east and Sumatra on the west – were hit by a tsunami late on Saturday, causing hundreds of deaths and widespread devastation.