Sumartran Tsunami

On December 26, 2004 a wave of destruction hit the coasts along the Indian Ocean, affecting lives all over the world. Not only did this disaster bring about a world wide relief effort, but caused a reevaluation of the lack of warning systems in place for many regions threatened by seismic activity and potential devastating coastal impact of seafloor earthquakes. Six months later, information abounds in text, television, and periodicals for any lay person to research. The diversity of perspective is another matter.

Depending on the source, subjects will range from brief plate tectonic education to in depth geophysical analysis, from calls for aid involvement to calls for answers revolving around predictability and warning.

If a curious student takes a sampling of just a few periodicals, two tuned to a general audience, and one designed to address information in a scholarly manner, that person can easily identify the characteristics and perspective of each. It is important to note, sources focused on human geography and public relations appear to have responded quicker with information and relayed simple geographical concepts, whereas scholarly journals and scientific periodicals are continuing the process of analyzing data and research-oriented information gathering, therefore these magazines are, even after six months, persevering in their quest to present articles, and will more than likely be publishing relevant articles in the future.

The National Geographic Society is good source of information, and no person can argue the artistry of its presentation, however, the magazine, and its television and internet productions are directed toward a curious, but mostly naive audience. If searching for an overview, a middle man one may say, National Geographic does provide a history and account of the event in “The Deadliest Tsunami in History” (National Geographic News, Jan 7, 2005). Organized and succinct, the article begins with a few simple facts about the wave making process and tsunami characteristics, even dispelling myths that a tsunami is a single destructive tidal wave, but actually a series of wave building processes resulting from the shifting of the earth undersea due to seismic activity. The article goes on to include human interest stories, not overlooking an account where an Indian man after remembering a National Geographic program, saves the li8ves of more than 1,500 of his fellow villagers. Lastly, the article discusses potential residual hazards of the event, presenting issues such as famine and disease epidemics due to the lack of clean water and food supplies diminished from the disaster. The article stated 150,000 people perished from the event, and postulates that due to after effects the death toll could raise to nearly double that number. At the time in which this article was published, little did the writers understand how correct they were; the death toll has reached over 300,000 only six months later.

The National Geographic article responded quickly and provided enough information to help the reader to understand the awesome effect of this tragedy, but did not offer the perspective of science or research. The little geophysical concepts presented were vaguely credited to the USGS or “local news” and described almost condescendingly.

Moving on to a more specialized magazine, Science News, a reader can find the scientific information presented in an easy to understand manner. Though the topic, the informational layout and human interest presentation was similar to that of the National Geographic version, this writer provided specific scholarly sources for the information presented. A quick to respond article, published January 8th, 2005, the writer, Sid Perkins, was looking to debrief a shocked audience. The writer provided much more quantitative data when presenting the actual event, citing specific sources. He even describes a gravitational change in the earth due to the slippage of seafloor caused by the quake:

“The sudden surge of the India plate downward, toward the planet’s center, slightly altered the planet’s distribution of mass, says Richard S. Gross of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Just as spinning skaters rotate more quickly when the draw their arms inward toward their bodies, the Earth now completes its daily rotation in about 2.67 microseconds less time than it did before the quake, according to his calculations.” (Perkins).

This excerpt exemplifies Perkins’ approach, not oversimplifying the information, yet offering an analogy to illustrate the process or concept. He finishes by briefly addressing the lack of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. He presents a controversial concept at he end of his article, as he barely touches on the fact that though there existed no actual warning system, the area had been identified as one of the eighty areas