How many times has there been a tsunami in Thailand? Is it possible to come to Thailand after a global catastrophe? Brief description of resorts minimally exposed to tsunami threat

The earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004 off the coast of Indonesia caused a giant wave - a tsunami, recognized as the deadliest natural disaster in the world. modern history.

The epicenter of the disaster was located at a depth of about 20 kilometers under the ocean floor, about 200 kilometers west of the northern tip of the island of Sumatra (Indonesia). The length of the earthquake source in the direction north-northwest (Andaman Sea) - south-southeast (along the coast of the island of Sumatra) was more than a thousand kilometers.

The energy released during an earthquake is approximately equal to the energy of the entire world reserve nuclear weapons or annual global energy consumption.

After this natural disaster The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO was commissioned to develop and implement a Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in Indian Ocean. In 2005, the Intergovernmental Coordination Group was established. Following eight years of international cooperation under the auspices of the IOC, the Tsunami Warning System became operational in March 2013, with regional tsunami watch centers in Australia, India and Indonesia taking responsibility for transmitting tsunami warnings to Indian Ocean countries.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Almost all people have probably heard about the tsunami in Thailand in 2004, since it was the most destructive tsunami in history. The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 is best shown in films such as “Tsunami” (released in 2006) and “The Impossible” (released in 2012). These films tell the story of how devastating the tsunami was and how difficult it was to find your family and friends after it. natural disaster.

What is a tsunami?
Tsunami - big waves, which are usually caused by an earthquake, explosion, or other event that causes a large volume of water to move. In the open ocean, a tsunami is usually harmless and invisible to the naked eye. A huge wave can pass almost unnoticed until it reaches shallow waters off the coast. Near the shore, the wave can reach a height of up to 40 meters.

2004 tsunami in Thailand.
The 2004 tsunami, called the Indonesian Tsunami, was one of the worst natural disasters in human history. It was caused by an undersea earthquake with an estimated magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 on the Richter scale, making it the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
The tsunami that followed the earthquake killed more than 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, left scores homeless and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Which regions of Thailand suffered the most?
Khao Lak was the worst hit area in Thailand. Here the water made its way from the shore to a distance of 1.5 km. After this tsunami, dolphins were discovered in one of the lakes, located about 1.5 km from the shore. The wave traveled this distance in about one minute. Only one hotel on the hill survived the disaster. The rest were badly damaged.
Phi Phi Don is an H-shaped island. To the east and west there are mountains of limestone that act as a giant wall that blocks the strong winds during the monsoon season. Both of these pieces of sushi are connected by a narrow isthmus.
The isthmus is surrounded on both sides by bays: Ton Sai in the south and Loh Dalam in the north. This isthmus is only 150 meters wide, but is crowded with bungalows and sightseers. The tsunami hit from both bays, so people simply had nowhere to run. The waves were much stronger in Loh Dalam Bay on the western side.
Phi Phi Island Village Hotel Beach Resort and Spa was badly damaged as it was built on a site where there is no hill to block the tidal waves coming from the west.

The result of the tsunami arriving in Thailand.
Tsunami on southwest coast Thailand along Andaman Sea wreaked death and destruction from the northern border with Burma to the southern border with Malaysia. The worst affected provinces in terms of loss of life and property destruction were Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi. And this is not only because of their location, but because they were the most developed and most densely populated areas along the coast.
The large loss of life is explained by the fact that the tsunami occurred on the morning after Christmas, when many people were still in their homes or hotel rooms. At least 5,000 people have died in Thailand, almost half of them Foreign tourists.
Much of Phuket's west coast was heavily damaged by the tsunami, with most homes, hotels, restaurants and other structures requiring significant repairs or restoration. Some areas, including Khao Lak, were almost completely destroyed by the waves.

Recovery after the tsunami.
Although Thailand suffered significant damage during the tsunami, it was able to rebuild all of its destroyed buildings and infrastructure fairly quickly compared to most other affected countries. When traveling to Phuket, Khao Lak and Phi Phi today, you will most likely not see traces or evidence that a tsunami occurred here.

Probability of a new tsunami.
Of course, there is a possibility of a new tsunami, since no one can guess how the earth’s crust will behave. However, earthquakes as strong as the one in 2004 are very rare (a similar earthquake was recorded in this region approximately 700 years ago). In addition, today there are new systems to detect the occurrence of a tsunami and warn people so that they have enough time to escape.

Which collapsed on the territory Caribbean Islands, Cuba and the USA. But let's remember that on December 26, 2004 at 7:58 am an earthquake occurred in the vastness of the Indian Ocean, which brought irreversible consequences. The magnitude of the destruction reached 9.1 - 9.3 points. It triggered the development of a powerful tsunami in Thailand. Many countries were hit by natural disasters, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Maldives. Residents of the islands of Phuket, Phi Phi, Khao Lak, Lanta, Krabi, located on the west coast of Thailand, took most of the blow. According to Wikipedia, between 225 thousand and 300 thousand innocent people died. Accurate calculations of victims are complicated by the fact that many were carried away by the giant wave into the open sea.

How did the greatest tragedy of the century begin?

December 26, 2004 was an ordinary morning with no signs of trouble. People who visited during their trip, and local population They were going about their usual business and could not even think that this day would bring so many victims.

Meanwhile, changes began to occur in the sea, which in the future led to irreversible consequences. As a result of a sudden earthquake on ocean depths water masses have shifted. This led to the fact that sea waves formed water semicircles that stretched over a distance of thousands of kilometers and headed towards the coastal zone of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, reaching speeds of up to a thousand km/h. Approaching the shore, the waves slowed down, however, they could reach 40 meters high.

The earthquake did not make itself felt on land, and the giant waves had not yet had time to reach the embankment and appear before people's eyes. Therefore, everyone who this moment was on the islands of Thailand, in particular Phuket and Krabi, could not imagine that they would witness a deadly devastating tsunami.

An hour after the start of the tremors provoked by the earthquake, the first signs of the approaching cataclysm appeared on land: animals and birds left the beach with worry in their eyes. The water from the sea suddenly moved away from the shore. Shallow areas of the seabed were strewn with fish and shells, which ended up on land due to the fact that sea water narrowed its boundaries. People with undisguised interest went to collect seafood. This was theirs fatal mistake.

After all, a wall of sea ​​water, rising to 15 meters up. Guests and residents of Thailand could not notice the approaching tsunami with the naked eye, because the wave did not have a white crest and seemed from afar to be a reflection of the sea surface. When the real picture of what was happening appeared before people, it was already too late to run - attempts to hide from the disaster were unsuccessful.

The water rushed with furious energy, covering the land for two kilometers. At the same time, she demolished everything in her path, bringing only destruction in her wake. After a short period of time, the sea wave headed back. The threat was posed not only by water, but also by pieces of earth, concrete, destroyed furniture, Construction Materials, cars, billboards that she carried behind her. These items could easily claim the lives of people who managed to escape the disaster.

Tsunami in Thailand 2004 video

Those who were at the epicenter of the events managed to capture unique moments on video cameras. These images are striking in how ruthless the elements swept through Thailand and the losses humanity suffered. You can watch the 2004 Thailand tsunami in the video below:

Tsunami in Thailand 2004: how many died?

The number of deaths seriously surprised everyone: 8500 people died, about 3 thousand were residents of Thailand, the rest were citizens of more than forty countries. The 2004 tsunami caused the largest and deadliest damage of any natural disaster ever recorded.

What did the tsunami leave behind?

When the water left the land and returned to sea ​​shores, the people who were destined to escape the tsunami could not believe their eyes. Exotic corners of Thailand, impressive with their beauty and attracting many tourists every year, have turned into ruins. All around one could see destroyed buildings, shops, restaurants, pieces of metal from broken cars, fallen trees, mutilated human bodies under the rubble.

Elimination of consequences

When the deadly disaster receded, work immediately began to eliminate the consequences of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Points were created for the survivors where they could receive medical care, food and clean water, spend the night. All victims were distributed among medical institutions. The big disadvantage of the fact that hot weather always prevails in Thailand was the high probability of contamination of the air and drinking water, which could result in an outbreak of infections. Therefore, on the list of initial tasks local authorities included the search for all the dead, their further identification and burial. Since there were only ruins all around, discovering dead bodies under the rubble took a lot of time, personnel and effort.

Useful for tourists:

The authorities of many countries around the world provided the necessary assistance to the Thais: be it human resources or material resources.

The tremors generated by the earthquake had an impossible force, as they passed through planet Earth and caused ground vibrations of up to 3 mm in the United States. As the storm raged, a large amount of energy was released, which provoked a change in the rotation of the planet. Because of this the length of the day decreased by 2.6 microseconds. Some of the islands located near Sumatra moved 20 meters to the southwest.

Thailand today

In the entire time that has passed since the 2004 tsunami, Thailand has managed to completely recreate the destroyed areas. A year after the cataclysm, people who lost their houses and apartments were provided with new housing.

All buildings that are built in Thailand, especially on the coast, meet special requirements. They are designed in such a way that in the event of a new disaster they will be able to withstand the impact of the sea elements and save the lives of thousands of innocent people.

Thailand takes part in an international system for monitoring the movement of water masses in the ocean, thanks to which they can anticipate the onset of a tsunami. In settlements located close to the sea, notification systems for approaching disasters and evacuation plans have been created. People were familiarized with the rules of behavior in the event of another natural disaster.

The authorities managed to restore the former atmosphere in Thailand tourist center, although all these achievements were achieved the hard way. In 2005-2006, people planning to travel were still in fear of the event and were in no hurry to buy tickets to these resorts. Therefore, the cost of travel packages has dropped significantly so that it is possible to at least somehow attract tourists to vacation on the Thai coast.

Years later, the situation in Thailand is the same as in the old days before the fatal natural disaster - it is one of the popular, world-famous resort areas in the world. Reviews from tourists satisfied with their trips only confirm this information. Nowadays, only fragments of video files and warning signs on the shore remind us of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. However, we will always remember the losses that this cataclysm brought to humanity.

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 at resort island 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 Maulabon, since all approaches to it from land are cut off: roads and bridges are destroyed, gorges are blocked rock, the rivers are dammed with fallen trees and sand.

IN administrative center In the province of Aceh, located on the westernmost tip of Sumatra, authorities estimate that at least 15,000 residents, or 5 percent of its 300,000 population, were killed.

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.

A powerful tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004 in Thailand, at the very peak of the season. Its cause is an underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean. It is still considered one of the most severe natural disasters in modern history and the third worst on record. Its power was 9.1 on the Richter scale.

The power of the disaster can be judged by the fact that it even hit South Africa, where waves of 1.5 m were recorded. All over the world, this event claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people; according to various estimates, the number of tsunami victims in 2004 ranged from 200,000 up to 300,000 people.

Watch the video

The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The countries most affected were those located directly next to it: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia and others. Waves 15 m high reached the coasts of states in different time- to Sumatra very quickly, to India - in 1.5 hours, and to Somalia - in 7 hours. The tsunami reached the mainland of Thailand 2 hours after the earthquake.

The large number of victims is explained by a poor tsunami warning and recognition system. The fact is that huge waves appear only near the shore, and in the ocean they are not particularly high. A good indicator was the animals that overnight left all coastal areas and rushed to the mountains. But man, in the process of evolution, lost his intuition and connection with nature, and therefore he rested as if nothing had happened.

Tsunami in Thailand in 2004

The tsunami in 2004 hit the western part of Thailand, which opens into the Andaman Sea, Phuket, Phi Phi, Khao Lak, Lanta, Krabi, and the Similian Islands were badly damaged. An estimated 9,000 people died, most of them tourists rather than locals.

Externally, the tsunami in Thailand in 2004 looked like this: suddenly the water began to move from the shore to the sea for a very long distance, and after a few minutes everyone saw giant waves approaching the shore. There were 1-2 minutes left for rescue. Since the height of the waves reached 10-15 meters, many “low-rise” hotels were flooded. However, we will omit the details so as not to recall the tragedy once again. Probably everyone has seen the news footage that has spread all over the world: twisted trees, cars, trains...

Phuket tsunami 2004

The tsunami affected almost the entire western coast of Phuket, where the most are Patong, Karon, Kamala and Kata. The infrastructure - hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs - was partially destroyed. According to general estimates, several hundred people died.

Despite the fact that the tsunami on the island of Phuket caused great destruction, the infrastructure was restored very quickly. In fact, by 2006 there was nothing left to remind us of this tragic event.

Tsunami in 2012

The 2012 tsunami was a failed tsunami and, in a sense, even a curious incident. Many people don’t even know that it happened. But first things first.

Should you be afraid of a tsunami in Thailand in Phuket, Phi Phi and others

Having described all the horrors of the tsunami above, many will decide not to contact Thailand and forever deprive themselves of the joy of relaxing at the resorts of the Andaman coast. We hasten to reassure you. Our answer is clear - it’s not worth it. The fact is that after the 2004 tragedy, the Thai government, together with American experts, installed a deep-sea system (the largest in the world) for early detection of tsunamis. A loudspeaker system has also been installed on the coast, which notifies the population of the approaching disaster in several languages. And all this happens a couple of hours before the expected disaster. An evacuation system has already been developed that will quickly deliver people to safe areas, away from the sea.

You may ask, what about on such small islands as the Phi Phi Islands, where you don’t get very far from the coast. Again, our answer is no need to worry. There are huge mountains there, compared to which the wave height of 15 meters is simply dwarfed.

The early warning system was tested on April 11, 2012, when there was a tsunami in Thailand and when the entire west coast of Phuket was evacuated, which I witnessed. So everything is fine, welcome to the resorts of the Andaman coast!

If you are still tormented by vague doubts, then relax at the resorts of the Gulf of Thailand. They are successfully protected by the Malay Peninsula from tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and by Cambodia and Vietnam from tsunamis in Pacific Ocean. The safest ones are located in the very depths of the Gulf of Thailand - Pattaya, Rayong, Hua Hin, Cha Am, Samet Island and Koh Larn. If you come to Thailand for long term and the sea is not particularly important for you, then go to the north of the country, where the worst thing that can happen is for the river to overflow its banks Chao Phraya or Mekong. Of course, this is an unpleasant event, but not fatal.