Vulnerability and Processes

Vulnerability

Vulnerability

• Vulnerability is about how vulnerably the environment of ENE is, making it more exposed to the tsunami.
• Un-educated
• Flat Land
• Living near the coast
• Harvesting of Mangroves
• Popular tourist region
• Location
• No warning system
• Living conditions

Un - educated & Flat Land

• Women in Indonesia do not learn how to swim This resulted in 40,000 more women than men dying in the tsunami.
• Because people are un-educated they make themselves vulnerable when they go down to the beach to watch the water recede. In Thailand the sea receded 100m for about 5 minutes.
• In the environment of S.E Asia there is no hills, the land is lat which makes people more vulnerable to the wave as they cannot evacuate to higher ground. In some areas the wave travelled 6km inland.

Living nearcoast & Harvestin of Mangrove

• A cultural characteristics that makes villages vulnerable to the tsunami, is because they live near the coast as they depend on fishing for income. In Sri-Lanka 100,000 homes were destroyed along with crops and boats. This resulted in 400,000 people losing there job mostly in the fishing and tourism industry.
• The natural barrier of mangroves was harvested prior to the tsunami. This makes the environment more vulnerable to the 20m wave that were able to strike the coast along the coastal regions.

Popular tourist location & Location

• S.E Asia is a popular region for tourist to visit. The tourist stay in resorts near the beach making them vulnerable to the tsunami. In Puhket, Thailand hundreds of tourists were swept out to sea while swimming at 10am. 9000 tourist lost there lives from across 27 different countries.
• The region of S.E Asia where the earthquake struck is location along a major fault line, the plat boundary of the Burma plate and Indo-Australian Plate. When the Indo-Australian plate slipped 90cm underneath the Burma plate this makes the environment more vulnerable.

No warning system & Living Conditions

• There was no warning system in place, so when the earthquake struck at 8.30am (lst) 2 hours later in India people became vulnerable to the tsunami.
• Poor communities cant afford the building material needed to construct safe houses and school. 1135 educational institues were destroyed or badly damaged.
• Because many communities live in poverty it makes them vulnerable to the effects of a tsunami. The death toll is higher from natural events in developing countries compared to developed countries. 230,000 people died during the tsunami.

Natural Process

Natural Processes

• On the 26th of December, 2004 at 8.30am (LST) a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck 250km off the west coast of Sumatra. Killing 230,000 people from 14 countries. The natural processes that occurred to create the earthquake then tsunami are subduction, formation of the earthquake, formation of the wave and wave formation

Subduction and Formation of Earthquake

• Subduction
• The first process that occurs to produce the Indian Ocean Tsunami. 250KM off the west coast of Sumatra Indonesia, there is a plate boundary where the Indo-Australian and Burma plate meet. The indo-australian plate is an oceanic plate that pushes against the Burma plat, constantly at 6cm per year. Because of the friction energy has been stored up. There had been no big movements in the past 150 years, which mean that a lot of pressure was stored, increasing. This process is called subduction.
• Formation of Earthquake
• Because of subduction the second process develops which is the formation of the earthquake. On decemebr the 26th at 8.30am (LST) the Indo-Australian plate slipped 90cm underneath the Burma plate, realising the stored pressure in the form of an 9.1 magnitude earthquake.

Formation of Tsunami and wave formation

• Because of the 9.1 magnitude earthquake it creates the next stage in the process of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the formation of the Tsunami. Because the seafloor was lifted, 30km3 of water was displaced. Travelling to the east and west towards the islands and countries like India, Indonesia, Sri-Lanka and Thailand at 900km/hr. the initial height of the wave was 30cm but increases as it travels and gathers more water.
• The wave formation is the process and most destructive process that the Indian Ocean Tsunami creates. When the tsunami waves approach shallower water the wave slows down as it creates friction with the ocean floor. However even though it slows down the water increases upwards . In Indonesia the wave height reached 30m causing mass destruction to the environmental features and characteristics of the S.E Asian countries like India, Indonesia SriLanka and Thailand.