Tsunami victims in Thailand. When was the tsunami in Thailand

Hi all! Vladimir Raichev is in touch. This Friday morning I invite you to talk about the history of disasters again. One of the worst disasters of our century is the 2004 tsunami. December 26, 2004 is a truly fateful day for several countries on our planet. Today we will have to talk about what happened.

• The most destructive volcanoes of the past, future and present.

According to scientists, the first earthquake occurred in the depths of the Indian Ocean, near the islands of Indonesia. The magnitude of the tremors ranged from 8.0 to 9.3, according to various sources. This cataclysm was included in the list of the most powerful in the history of our planet. The shaking was stronger only in 1960 in Chile and in 1964 in Alaska. But the number of deaths in those years was insignificant, since the affected areas were not densely populated.

A large section of the earth's crust (the Indian Plate) moved almost 1,500 km that morning (although it usually moves no further than 7 cm each year). As a result of this, the Indian plate “drove” under the neighboring plate. With such a sharp movement, the ocean floor rose - this was the cause of that large-scale tsunami. Under extraordinary pressure, water rushed out in all directions.

To understand how great the pressure released at that time was, it is enough to imagine that with the help of all the energy received it was possible to boil more than 150 liters of water for every person on our planet.

The force of the disaster was so great that it affected the speed of the Earth! Scientists have not yet been able to determine the exact figure, but it is believed that as a result of what happened, the length of the earth’s day decreased by more than 2 microseconds.

This may seem like a small thing, but on the scale of the entire planet this figure is impressive. In addition, for a couple of minutes the Earth “wobbled” around its orbit (this is a rare phenomenon).

Several Indonesian islands were literally moved. The movement was not only horizontal: many coastal areas were flooded with water and remain under it to this day.

What was the tsunami like?

The waves formed gradually, only a couple of hours after the shock the height of the crest was more than 60 cm. The water overtook the Indonesian islands of the coast, the Indian coast, Thailand, Sri Lanka and even South Africa (overcoming more than 8000 km).

The blow had a terrifying force. For comparison, the energy released by the strike was several times greater than the amount of energy obtained from the explosion of all ammunition during the Second World War (including the nuclear bombs that destroyed two Japanese cities). It is difficult for the human mind to even imagine this.

The height of the water killer in some areas reached 20 meters. The water passed more than 2 km of the coast, sweeping away everything in its path.

How did all this affect people?

At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity had already managed to explore space, visit the Moon, destroy several hundred species of animals and plants, invent cures for many diseases... But they did not come up with a tsunami detection system.

That day, people were completely unprepared for trouble, despite the fact that the water took more than 7 hours to reach some countries! And in 7 hours it was possible to evacuate almost the entire country. Surprisingly, most of the animals inhabiting the affected countries were saved by rising to higher ground in time.

The last large-scale tsunami occurred more than half a century ago, without claiming many lives. Therefore, the world was not particularly familiar with the very concept of “tsunami”. People saw animals running from the shore, as the water receded, revealing the seabed.

According to surviving eyewitnesses, a suspicious silence hung in the air: the usual sound of the surf and the cries of birds could not be heard. But all these oddities did not make people run away from the ocean, but only spurred curiosity. Whole crowds of onlookers wandered along the shallow bottom, collecting discarded shells and fish.

Meanwhile, the tsunami was approaching, rushing at a speed of more than 100 km/h. The water was treacherous: the crest of the wave was not the usual white color, so people saw the deadly wall only when it came too close.

Houses, hotels and the entire coastline as a whole were not able to withstand the impact of the elements: the walls crumbled like toys. Thus, the tsunami became even more deadly: not just tons of water rushed through the streets. It was a torrent of mud, debris, trees and cars. People were simply crushed by garbage.

The wave had already hit Aceh province (Indonesia), killing thousands of people, and on the beaches of Thailand people were still basking in the sun. There was absolutely no warning system or evacuation scheme.

The exact number of deaths is unknown. According to official data - more than 225,000 people (for comparison: the population of Veliky Novgorod is 220,000 people). The calculations were complicated by the fact that people disappeared in entire settlements, streets, and families. That is, no one could report them missing, there was no one left at all who remembered them.

The authorities could rely only on the population census. Moreover, in Thailand, Somalia, and India there live a colossal number of unregistered residents leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle. A third of all dead and missing were children, since they were the ones who did not physically have enough strength to be saved.

Thousands of people were swept out into the open ocean. December is the peak tourist season in Thailand, so the tsunami claimed the lives of citizens of Europe and even Australia.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that search work had to be carried out in the shortest possible time, because when the water left, the corpses of people lay everywhere, decomposing in the terrible heat. All this could lead to the development of entire epidemics, so the authorities rushed as best they could.

Those who somehow managed to survive the first wave made two mistakes. Mistakes that later turned out to be fatal:

1. One part was in a state of shock and was afraid to even move. People remained in their shelters, not daring to leave. But after the first wave came the second. And then the third, which in turn “finished off” those who did not have time to escape;
2. Another part of the people, having waited out the first wave in shelter, left it, rushing to the coastline. Some were looking for their family and friends, others wanted to see if anything was left of their home, and many rushed to help the victims. Repeated waves found those who managed to escape first.

In the midst of all this chaos, there were also stories of miraculous salvation. Those who seemed to have no chance managed to survive and start living again:

The 8-year-old girl Vati was carried away into the ocean by a stream of water. Her relatives could not find her anywhere and had already come to terms with the loss when one day, after a whole 7 years, an acquaintance brought the already grown child home. It turned out that somehow Vati was able to survive. She washed ashore in a nearby town, several kilometers from home. From the shock she experienced, the baby lost her memory. The only thing that she managed to remember over time was the name of her grandfather. A waiter from a local cafe knew the girl’s family and, combining two tragic stories, brought Vati to her family;

An American family went scuba diving with their coach. The most powerful wave hit right above their heads, while the group went into the depths. All they had time to notice was that the water suddenly began to become cloudy. The coach gave the command to rise. Once on the surface, the divers found corpses of people and the remains of buildings around them;

One of the eyewitnesses reported that he saw how a large elephant helped the children: he wrapped his trunk around their small bodies, put them on his back and carried them out of the whirlpool of water. And another victim swears that his life was saved that day by a real crocodile! Mr. Gunasekera was literally carried out of the house by the water flow, but he did not lose his head and grabbed the nearest log. Only it turned out not to be a log, but a crocodile. The man assures that the reptile did not show a hint of aggression, allowing him to grab his tail and dragging the man all the way to the shore.

What happened after the tsunami?

Having mourned all the dead, humanity began to analyze the disaster that had occurred.

Thailand has joined the international system for monitoring tectonic activity. Special sensors have been created that can detect tremors even at great depths in the middle of the ocean.

Many countries have developed public warning systems and evacuation schemes in case of danger. Colossal work was also carried out to inform the population: they taught the rules of behavior during earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters. Now detailed instructions can be seen even on the door of any hotel.

The authorities built new buildings that could withstand the force of the shock wave of the elements: powerful beams, reinforced concrete frames, and a special angle of inclination.

Gradually, the cities were able to come to their senses: houses were rebuilt, people returned. Even tourists were able to regain confidence in their favorite paradise beaches over time. Only the families of the victims still remember that fateful day for all humanity.

This is what happened in the Indian Ocean. It’s a shame that they couldn’t prevent it or at least minimize the losses. That's all for me, subscribe to the blog news to be the first to receive the latest news. Share the article with your friends on social networks, I’m sure they will be interested in reading it. Until we meet again, bye-bye.

ALL PHOTOS

The Indian Army, Air Force and Navy were on full alert on Thursday morning following a warning of new destructive tsunami. Not far from the epicenter of the first earthquake, in the area of ​​​​the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the east of the country, strong tremors measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale were again recorded. The government announced the evacuation of the population. The warning will be in effect for 48 hours.

At this time, in Indonesia, military personnel involved in search and rescue operations are digging giant mass graves on the island with bulldozers.

In Thailand, it has not yet been possible to establish contact with 43 Russian citizens who were in the disaster zone on the resort island of Phuket. This was stated on Thursday by the press secretary of the Russian Embassy in Thailand, Irina Borisyuk. “We do not exclude the possibility of new victims among Russian citizens,” the spokeswoman noted. “There are a lot of unidentified bodies from which it is impossible to understand who they are.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Thai authorities released a list of those killed on the resort island of Phuket. Among the 435 dead foreigners - 8 Russians. However, as Irina Borisyuk reported, the Foreign Ministry assumes that “this erroneous information appeared as a result of inaccurate information provided by the island’s medical institutions.”

But the number of Russians in Thailand, with whom everything is fine, has already grown to 590 people. Thanks to information from relatives, it became known about a new group of 52 people who theoretically could have ended up in the disaster zone, but whose exact location at the time of the tsunami was unknown, RIA Novosti reports.

Currently, there are four employees of the Russian diplomatic mission on the resort island popular among our compatriots, who work in close contact with the Thai authorities.

On Thursday, a large group of Russian citizens will fly from Phuket by plane of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, she added. To date, 80 Russians have expressed a desire to take advantage of this opportunity, Borisyuk said.

The total number of missing foreigners in Thailand so far is about 5,300.

The total death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in 11 countries and territories in the Indian Ocean basin has risen to 123,000.

And the final death toll could be more than 250 thousand. Only in Indonesia, according to official data from the country's Ministry of Health, 79,940 people died. According to unofficial data, about 80 thousand people died on the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra alone, which was most affected by tidal waves-tsunamis and magnitude 9 tremors. In some parts of the Indonesian province of Aceh, according to rescuers, one in four residents could have died. And this province is inhabited by 4.3 million people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also warns that tens of thousands more people could die as a result of epidemics if the bodies of the dead cannot be quickly buried.

Official death toll is 123,181:

List of dead foreigners:

Meanwhile, according to reports coming from resorts on the Andaman Sea coast, more than 6,500 people could have died there. More than half of all deaths occurred in Pangna province.

“At the moment we have a huge number of missing people - about 6 thousand people, most likely at least 80% of this number died,” said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

According to reports from the disaster areas in Sumatra, the city of Maulabon with a population of 40 thousand inhabitants was practically wiped off the face of the earth. Last Sunday, he found himself just 149 km from the epicenter of the strongest tectonic cataclysm in 100 years.

Meanwhile, rescuers and representatives of humanitarian organizations still cannot get to Maulabona, since all approaches to it from land are cut off: roads and bridges are destroyed, gorges are blocked with rock, rivers are dammed with fallen trees and sand.

In the provincial capital of Aceh, located at the westernmost tip of Sumatra, authorities estimate that at least 15,000 residents, or 5 percent of its 300,000 population, have died.

The island of Sumatra is located on the border of two tectonic plates - huge sections of the earth's crust that are in constant motion. The plate on which the Indian Ocean is located moves to the northeast by 10-12 cm per year and goes under the island, since it is heavier than the Sumatran plate.

Huge potential energy accumulates between them. Eventually one of the plates splits, causing earthquakes. This time, the length of the crack in the tectonic plate was about 1 thousand km, when one of the plates dropped almost 10 meters.

A sharp drop in seabed level caused a tsunami.

On September 18, 2007, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashed while landing. The weather conditions that day were not good. The landing was hard, and the plane skidded straight into a nearby hill. People died, and it was a tragedy for a fairly small country.

Recording and pronunciation of words, similarities and differences with the Russian language.

There is a transcription of Thai-Russian words, for the convenience of the concept of the Thai language for Russians. They were adopted by Roscartography, in Russian the name sounds like “ Phuket».

In the Thai language, all aspirated consonants are emphasized, and the letter “X” is designated as aspirated, but the Russian language does not emphasize aspirated letters, therefore, if spoken correctly, the name will sound like “ Phuket" But the Russian language dictionary still defines the name as “Puket”.

But sometimes there are very strange names. For example, “Bhuket” refers to the traditional transcription of the Thai language when it is correct to pronounce “Bh”. However, it has become customary to say “ Phuket“, and therefore let’s leave everything as it is and as everyone is used to.

Phuket– this is 40% Muslims; and although Thailand and is a Buddhist state, Phuket mainly gathered a large Muslim population, all of them descendants of seafarers.

Tsunami in Thailand in 2004 - why and how it all happened

The first full tsunami in 2004

Many of us dream of settling on the seashore, inhaling the healing air every day, relaxing on the beach, and refreshing ourselves from time to time in the gentle waves. But sometimes the sea, which gives us so much joy, turns into a source of mortal threat. Its waves are capable of sweeping away everything in its path, sparing neither people nor their homes.

The most terrible natural disaster that comes to us from the sea is a tsunami. It can destroy everything that gets in its way, leaving behind many human victims, destruction, and emptiness. Sometimes the waves reach the height of a 15-story building. They are usually caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides or meteorite falls.

What a tsunami is, many residents of Thailand and tourists who came to the country on vacation had to see with their own eyes on December 26, 2004. This day will forever go down in history as the date of the most destructive natural disaster of our time.
What triggered the disaster?

The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 was caused by powerful earthquakes with a magnitude of over 9.0. This earthquake was the third most powerful in recorded history. Its epicenter was in the Indian Ocean, near the northwestern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The tsunami spread across the Indian Ocean until it reached the shores of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and some other countries. There were dead and injured even in South Africa, 6,900 km from the epicenter of the earthquake.

Which areas were hit the hardest?

Areas affected by 2004 prices

The island of Phuket that suffered the most from the 2004 Tsunami, namely Patong Beach

The 2004 tsunami in Thailand hit the island of Phuket and its adjacent coast the hardest. Three giant waves hit the islands of Phuket, Phi Phi and the mainland provinces of Krabi and Phang Nga. Most of the buildings were destroyed, and several hundred local residents and tourists were buried under their ruins. The Phi Phi Islands were completely hidden under the water for some time; many people simply had no chance of salvation. People who were on the mainland during the disaster also became victims of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. The wave, the height of a three-story building, spread 2 km inland with tremendous speed. In the Khao Lak district of Phang Nga province, people on the lower floors of buildings were killed. So, in the Sofitel hotel, out of more than 600 people, only 30 managed to escape.

At other Thai resorts, the number of casualties and destruction was not so significant, since the Gulf of Thailand is closed from the Indian Ocean by the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Indonesia.
Disaster victims

Tsunami victims

The number of victims after prices in 2004 was more than 8,500 people

The horrific consequences of the tsunami in Thailand were the death of many people and enormous damage to the economy and the environment. Thousands of families have lost loved ones or lost their livelihoods. Volunteers arrived in the country from all over the world to help search for survivors, collect the bodies of the dead and organize identification parades.

The 2004 tsunami in Thailand killed 8,500 people, 5,400 of whom were tourists. As for the total number of deaths as a result of the powerful earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, their true number is still not known exactly. According to various sources, from 225 thousand to 300 thousand people became victims of the disaster. The water carried the bodies of many of them into the sea. In addition, more than a million inhabitants of the kingdom were left homeless.

The number of tsunami victims in Thailand could have been lower if not for a tragic coincidence. Local residents and tourists practically did not feel the tremors during the earthquake, and the tsunami reached the shores of the kingdom so quickly that there was no time for reports of a serious danger to arrive from other countries. When waves 15-20 meters high began to approach the shores of Phuket and other islands, many people, armed with cameras, gathered to watch the unique spectacle. These people accounted for a significant number of deaths.

Consequences of the Tsunami

A few days after the disaster

Measures taken to prevent this from happening in the future

The kingdom's authorities have taken measures to not only restore resorts after the tsunami, but also to ensure the protection of the population and vacationers in the future.

Scientists have conducted serious research into what buildings on the coasts of Thailand should be like to effectively withstand the threat of a tsunami. It was decided to construct buildings from reinforced concrete and position them in such a way that the main walls were at an oblique angle or parallel to the direction of the waves.
The lower floors of new buildings on the coasts now have strong supports, but are almost devoid of walls so that water can pass freely without destroying the building.
The Kingdom has joined the international deep-sea tsunami early warning system. Its sensors are now located along areas of the Thai coast that pose the greatest danger. This will allow the population to be notified of the threat in advance and measures to be taken in time to save people.

Many people remember the tsunami that swept through Southeast Asia in 2004, killing 400,000 people. This happened before the New Year and became a real disaster for local residents and vacationers. Here we remember the tragic events that occurred during tsunami in Thailand 2004 of the year.

Tsunami in Thailand 2004: how it happened

The cause of the super-powerful tsunami in Thailand was an earthquake in the Indian Ocean. As a result, 18 countries were affected by the wave. The underwater shock occurred on December 26 at 7.58 local time and went almost unnoticed. This led to huge casualties tsunami in Thailand 2004 of the year. After 2 hours, the first wave approached the Thai coast. The magnitude of the earthquake was 9.1 - 9.3 points (it was recognized as the 3rd most powerful in history), and the epicenter was only 160 km from Sumatra. As a result, some small islands moved as much as 20 meters, and the Earth’s rotation around its axis even slightly accelerated.

The height of the wave was 15 meters and washed away almost everything in its path: trees were torn out, buildings were destroyed, cars were washed away from parking lots, boats and larger vessels were thrown ashore. The water that flooded the beaches of Thailand, including the popular Patong, went several hundred meters deep onto the land, and in some places went 2 kilometers deep. 2004 Thailand Tsunami, which came the first time, washed away almost the entire infrastructure, but after that the wave returned twice more and completed the destruction.

2004 Thailand Tsunami: Devastation

Many escaped in the mountains, and those who did not make it climbed onto the roofs of hotels. The islands of Phuket, Phi Phi (the island was completely submerged), and the provinces of Krabi and Phangan were hit the hardest. About 8,500 people, citizens of 40 countries, died in Thailand.

The same wave reached India in 90 minutes, and reached the African coast in Somalia in 7 hours. Destruction was noted even in South Africa in Port Elizabeth. Even the state of Kerala in India, which is also known for its bloody rains, was affected, although it is located on the west coast and not the east. The total number of victims ranges from 250 to 300 thousand.

This tsunami in Thailand became the largest in 80 years and is among the TOP 10 most destructive in history.