On December 26, 2004 the world experienced the most devastating natural disaster to hit the Indian Ocean. It was classified as a tsunami, a tsunami holding immense power equivalent to the destruction of three nuclear bombs. Tsunami waves can become more than 30 feet high as they come into shore and can rush miles inland across low-lying areas. The death tolls were astronomical causing much grief, pain and depression throughout the world. "Estimates of the total toll from the eleven countries hit by the disaster range from about 162 000 to 178 000. Tens of thousands more are missing and many are presumed dead." (The star, 2005) A similar situation did occur in the past where a similar atrocity erupted on the Pacific Ocean. It created …show more content…
The United States have also marshaled a fleet of aircraft carriers and helicopters to deliver relief supplies (Globe and Mail, Jan 4, 2005); not to mention the doctors and nurses representing nations from all over the globe taking time to volunteer their services in the shook countries.
I stop to wonder though, would we, the people of this world have compassion and the will to donate any money if the media did not possess the power to influence or motivate? As it was clearly stated by Johnson, "What happens when the camera crews go home?" (Globe and Mail, Jan 4, 2005) The media has become an institutionalized necessity with the western culture. From a sociological perspective, the media plans and organizes what the world should hear and know. "Those deaths are mostly invisible to us, and those people died one at a time. They were not swept away by an ocean wave before our eyes on CNN." (Globe and Mail, Jan 4, 2005) As you can see it clearly stated in the article that if the media did not display the tsunami massacre on television or any other sources of media, the world would be completely oblivious to the mass destruction. Although it has been a great world effort to help the countries in need, matters such as AIDS has caused much misery in Africa, but the teamwork, the deliverance of aid can not be weighed against the relief aid given to Sri Lanka or Indonesia. For example, as it stated in the
The Australian government was a major contributor of aid, the highest contributor after the United States. Immediately after the disaster struck the Australian government allocated 60 million in disaster relief and within 36 hours’ aid had been sent to Thailand.
The Boxing Day Tsunami had occurred on the 26th of December 2004. The tsunami had started under water, in the Indian Ocean. The cause of the tsunami was that the Indo-Australian plate had subducted below the Eurasian plate, this process is called a convergent plate boundary. This resulted with an underwater earthquake, making waves approximately 20-30 metres high and travelling at speeds up to 500km/ph. Theses waves travelled throughout Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand and left each country in terrible conditions. The earthquake that occurred underwater had
The media is an amazing invention that can be a very good tool during times of distress. There are issues with media sometimes but overall, it can be useful in the right hands. Throughout history, the media has been used wisely to enrich the knowledge of the public and to show what can be done in order to help their fellow man.
The tsunami waves reached heights up to 128 feet at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as six miles. A tsunami is a series of large sea waves caused by a large displacement of water. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles in Japan. The massive waves destroyed large three-story buildings where many people seeked for safety. Within hours of the first tsunami hit Hawaii and set off multiple warning to Canada, Alaska, South America, the United States, the Oregon coast, and the Pacific.
All along the coast of Central America the tsunami was observed. (February 4, 1965, Alaska Earthquake, Rat Islands, Magnitude 8.7) This earthquake was recorded at a magnitude 8.7 and caused a big tsunami of over 10 m on Shemya Island. It barely caused any damage, though. Just two months after the initial shock, an aftershock earthquake at a magnitude of 7.6 hit the same area. (March 28, 2005, Sumatra Earthquake aka Nias Earthquake) Just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, was a devastating earthquake that killed 1,300 people. A majority of the devastation occurred on the island of Nias. The massive earthquake sparked a panic around countries along the Indian Ocean because there was a massive tsunami just three months earlier in December. ( August 15, 1950, Assam, Tibet Earthquake, Magnitude 8.6) There were at least 780 people who died in this 8.6 magnitude earthquake. Many buildings completely collapsed in areas of Eastern Tibet. Landslides and ground cracks/fractures ended up washing away and entire village. The village of Yedong collapsed into the Yarlung Zangbo River and literally washed
This generated one of the deadliest tsunamis known to mankind, killing over 230,000 people and leaving over two million people displaced. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Indian Ocean, right off the west coast of Sumatra. The tectonic plates beneath the ocean floor had been colliding and building up pressure for hundreds of years, until this day when subduction occurred between the Indian and the Burma plates. The process of subduction displaced billions of tons of water, creating waves that traveled towards the shorelines at hundreds of miles per hour and as high as sixty to one hundred feet. There was absolutely no warning for the people of Southeast Asia, as the tsunami progressed quite rapidly. (National Geographic,
Tsunamis occur when there is sudden movement in an extensive body of water such as earthquakes, landslides on the sea floor, major volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts. The most common source of a tsunami is earthquakes, which are another type of geomorphic hazard that is caused by the friction and stress that tectonic plates put on each other. Tsunamis primarily occur in coastal or island regions where there is a tectonic border or what is known as the ring of fire. As shown in the diagram below the ring of fire is located along the coastal and island regions of the world.As a result of the Pacific Plate diving beneath the Eurasian plate, on March 11, 2011, there were 2 geomorphic hazards, a magnitude-9 earthquake struck north Japan, which caused a deadly tsunami that reached heights of 39 meters. The destructive dilemma was dubbed ‘The Great Sendai Disaster’. The earthquake was caused by multiple centuries of stress on the tectonic plates surrounding the island. The earthquake caused a tsunami that reached the height of 39 meters (128 feet). Japanese scientists had previously discovered that there was another tsunami just like the one in 2011 that took place in 869 AD. But their warning was unhindered. The tsunami, which occurred in 869 AD, was caused by the same tectonic fault as the 2011 tsunami. The epicenter of the earthquake was off the northeast cost of Japan leading to a devastating tsunami that killed many and left many wishing they were. The massive earthquake caused an upward wave that headed towards the city of Sendai. Researches have recently uncovered a thin layer of clay that lubricated the fault zone causing the deadly tectonic slip, thus creating a tsunami that could wipe out an entire city as it did in 2011.The aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake was not pretty; it caused many deaths, injuries, traumas, financial difficulties, destruction of property, health bills and the destruction of the landscape as a whole. The natural disaster caused nearly 16,000 casualties and there are an estimated 2,500 people still reported missing. Although drowning caused most deaths others include, crushed by debris, suicide and diseases caused by nuclear radiation (cancer) spilled from nuclear
The morning of December 26, the peaceful morning was cut short of by a massive earthquake that struck off Indonesia causing a deadly tsunami The earthquake was described as having the power of 23,000 Hiroshima bombs, reaching a magnitude of 9.0. After the tsunami started it travels 13 countries and left beaches filled
The 2004 Indian Ocean and Tsunami, everyone has heard about this tragic experience before. It is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. A Tsunami is a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide, or other disturbance. For the book, Wave, there was family of four where the brother, mom and dad went to Thailand to spend their winter break. The daughter had decided to spend her winter break in New York City. In Thailand, there was a Tsunami that had struck the resort where the family had been staying at. The dad and his son went out to go and help others while the mom stayed back in the hotel lobby. Or what was left of it.
In the article, ¨Indian Ocean Tsunami; Then and Now¨ by Lucy Rodgers and Gerry Fletcher the text says, ¨About 228,000 people were killed as a result of the 9.1 magnitude quake and the giant waves that slammed into coastlines.¨ Anything can happen at any time, and everybody living in that area were not expecting a tsunami to hit out of nowhere, causing 228,000 of them to get killed. On page 48, the text says, ¨For as far as Ruslan could see, Meulaboh had become a lake, clogged with floating debris.¨ Everything in the city was basically gone, all because nobody saw anything coming and nobody was prepared. Finally, on page 78, the text says, ¨A man stared at him with wide, and bulging eyes. Unblinking eyes, rigid with death. Around him were several more corpses, caught in the brush like debris.¨ Thousands people got killed and hurt, because a tsunami hit out of
The word tsunami comes from a Japanese word meaning “Long harbor waives”. Tsunami is much known and very common in Japan because thousands of Japanese have been killed and some suffered in recent centuries. Tsunami waves generally speaking cause a lot of damages such as, killing people, destroying building, and costing million of dollars. Moreover, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that is located on epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, is actually one of the worst disasters in the history of Indian Ocean that generated by the most powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake. An aggressive
Media has the power to determine how we perceive world events. Just as Happer and Philo say, “…they [the media] are key to the setting of agendas and focusing public interest on particular subjects, which operates to limit the range of arguments and perspectives that inform public debate (Happer & Philo, 2013). Society for years has relied on the media to inform us of what is happening around the world, and whether we like it or not, what they choose to show us or not show us affects our opinions. Since people don’t have the ability to be in these situations and see for ourselves, they must be dependent on someone else to inform them. We
A tsunami can get very high all the way to the top of the empire state building that is a 100 feet.The highest tsunami is about 1720 feet that is very high for water and it is all caused by an earthquake.Have you ever been near a tsunami if you have not they are huge it can take out almost the whole of new york city.new york is huge but it is not near the ocean so it could not take it out. When I was in new york I got the chills because there was flood warnings and I got
In addition to the aforementioned information, the tsunami is also devastating to the Japanese population, as well as nations surrounding the Pacific ocean. In fact, the tsunami is the greatest cause of damage during the quake. In the tragic event, 15,890 people perished, 2,590 people reported missing, and 6,152 people suffered injuries in Japan-- most of which as a result of the tsunami.
The earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean 160 miles west of Sumatra. With a magnitude of 9.3 lasting nearly about 10 minutes. The quake moved a full 750 miles of underwater fault line up to 40 feet thus causing a massive displacement of water. Causing a tsunami the tsunami had been estimated to have had two