Tsunamis are ocean waves caused by a displacement of ocean water which
can be caused by an earthquake on the ocean floor, an underwater land slide
that may be triggered by an earthquake, the collapse of part of a volcano that
falls into the ocean or a comet or asteroid striking the ocean. In 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of
9.1 occurred off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was one of the worst natural disasters in
recorded history with a death toll of over 230,000. Most of the deaths were
caused by the tsunami which followed after the earthquake. The tsunami affected many countries around
the Indian Ocean causing death and damage as far away as Africa. In Madagascar, waves of up to 33 feet were
seen in the southeastern side of the island.
This resulted in one death and left over 1000 homeless. Most victims around the Indian Ocean were not
aware of the tsunami even though it took hours before the waves to arrive
because there was no warning systems.
Because of this, The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System was constructed
and became operational in 2006.
Sumatra is 5581 miles away
from Madagascar. The Arabian, Indian,
Antarctic and Indo- Australian Plate boundaries which surround Madagascar are
much closer. If an earthquake occurred on one of these plate
boundaries close or of a similar magnitude that hit off the northern coast of
Sumatra in 2014, the death and destruction in Madagascar would be much greater
then what was experienced in 2004.
Madagascar has two active volcanoes off its coast on each side of the
island. The volcano Piton De La Fournaise on Reunion Island just erupted on
august 1st of this year and is around 300 miles east of
Madagascar. On the northwest side of
Madagascar are the Comoros Islands where the volcano Karthola is located. About 200 miles distance from Madagascar, it
erupted on May 29, 2006. A volcano that
erupts can produce a tsunami if enough of it falls into the ocean and produces
substantial waves. The Davie ridge is an
underwater ridge located between southeast Africa and Madagascar. In May and June of 1985, a sequence of
earthquakes occurred with up to a magnitude of 6.4 in the northern part of the
ridge. This did not produce a tsunami
but could have if the magnitude was bigger. I could not find any information
about a tsunami, other than the one in 2004, striking Madagascar in recent
history. The risk of a tsunami may be slight but it could potentially happen if
one of the scenarios above took place.
Even with The Indian Ocean
Tsunami Warning System in place, I don’t know how well the government of
Madagascar would be able to disperse this information to a large portion of its
population quick enough to save lives.
Madagascar has a poor telecommunication system. In cities some people own phones and have
internet access but not in many rural areas. Only 15% of the population have
access to electricity. Most people don’t own phones, televisions or radios
because of this and because of extreme poverty could not afford these devices
anyway. In cities there at least would
be some people who have access to television and radio but 70% of the population
live in rural areas. By the time many
people would get this information, it would be too late. Also, since most people don’t own a car, most
would have to walk inland or go to higher ground so being able to get this
information in a timely manner would also be important.
REFERENCES
Kellor,
Edward A., Devecchio, Duane E., (2015) Natural Hazards, Earth's
processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes (4TH ED).
Piton De La Fournaise, www.Wikipedia.org
Mount
Karthala, www.Wikpedia.org
Madagascar
- Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, www.wikipedia.org
2004
Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, www.wikipedia.org
Earthquakes
in the Davie Ridge-Madagascar region and the…adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988jgr…9310439g
Access to electricity (% of population) /data/table. data.worldbank.org
Impact of 2004 in the island of the Indian Oceans...www.hindawi.com/journals/emi/2011/920813
Fantastic post! As you say, the challenge is great in very poor and/or un-developed countries. They have so many fronts to deal with... It seems they are more frequently hit by cyclones and flooding....I found out UNESCO is funding some of the preparedness efforts and that they have a website where they post hazards..at least they have some kind of education effort out.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bngrc.mg/
http://iotic.ioc-unesco.org/state/11/madagascar
It's unfortunate that a country with that big of a population does not have a great telecommunication due to the poverty. And you are right, by the time a citizen knows about the tsunami, it will be too late. At least it's amazing how UNESCO is stepping in to help support Madagascar before another disaster happens like that again!
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