Browse All : Images of Indonesia and Indian Ocean from December 26, 2004

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, the island nation of Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties, with the death toll reported at 21,715 on December 29th.DigitalGlobe?s [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ] Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devestation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top), on December 26, 2004, at 10:20 a.m. local time?about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit. [A Quickbird image taken on January 1, 2004 (lower), shows the normal ocean conditions.] Water is flowing out of the inundated area and back into the sea, creating turbulence offshore. Some near-shore streets and yards are covered with muddy water. It is possible that the image was acquired in a ?trough? between wave crests. Imagery of nearby beaches shows that the edge of the ocean had receded about 150 meters from the shoreline.More images [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html ] are available on the DigitalGlobe web site. Images Copyright DigitalGlobe [ http://www.digitalglobe.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Earth?s solid surface floats on a layer of softer rock as a collection of interlocking, movable puzzle pieces called tectonic plates. At 7:58 a.m. (local time), on December 26, 2004, beneath the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra, Indonesia, pent-up energy from the compressional forces of one tectonic plate grinding under another found a weak spot in the overlying rock. The rock was thrust upward, and the Earth shook as a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent its vibrations out into the ocean. Tsunamis spread out in all directions, the massive waves washed over islands and crashed against coastlines in Sri Lanka, Southern India, and even the east coast of Africa. Tens of thousands of people were killed, millions are homeless. The image above shows how the tectonic puzzle pieces fit together around Indonesia. The epicenter of the recent quake is marked with a red star in the image. It is located just to the east of the Sunda Trench, where the India Plate begins to get subducted beneath (forced under) the Burma Plate. The blue arrows along the plate boundary show the direction of subduction. As the India Plate slides beneath the Burma Plate, it meets pockets of resistance, which causes compressional forces to build up. Weakened overlying rock gets forced upward. Based on the location of aftershocks (red shaded circles on the image), the United States Geological Survey reports that approximately 1,200 kilometers of the plate boundary probably slipped as a result of the quake. The initial rupture was likely more than 100 kilometers wide, and probably produced an average vertical displacement along the fault plane (the slope along which the two plates meet) of 15 meters. When the bottom of the ocean is deformed by this type of ?megathrust? quake, the upward force acts like a fist rising up from underwater. Water rolls down off the sides of the ?fist,? creating massive waves that can travel as fast as an airplane. The waves can move across the ocean and barely disturb the surface, but when they reach shallow coastal water, the earthquake?s energy thrusts them tens of meters into the air. The tsunami created by this earthquake reached India and Sri Lanka in about four hours. The wave eventually reached Africa, the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, and the west coast of North and South America. For more information about this earthquake and plate tectonics, visit the Website of the USGS. [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/ ] Image courtesy United States Geological Survey [ http://www.usgs.gov/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The true-color image above shows an inlet of Little Andaman Island, near the village of Kwate-tu-Kwage. Little Andaman Island is part of India?s Andaman Island chain, situated in the eastern Indian Ocean roughly 965 km (600 miles) south-southeast of Bangladesh. The image shows a swath of destruction (grayish patches) just inland from the beach as buildings and houses were damaged or swept away by surging seawater. The image was acquired on January 2, 2005, by the IKONOS satellite. On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit off the west coast of Sumatra, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640 ] Indonesia, sending shockwaves and tsunamis radiating out from the epicenter. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] According to news reports, as of January 2, 2005, no relief aid has been sent to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and little is currently known about the extent of the damage and loss of life there. Although this scene is partly obscured by a thin cloud overhead, many striking details can be seen in the full-resolution copy. A dark crescent of standing water can be seen to the west (left) of the village?possibly the remnants of the tsunami. The image also reveals tsunami destruction to structures along the coast and damage fairly far inland as well. In some cases structures have been ripped off foundations, which is especially noticeable near the inlet. Image copyright Space Imaging [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, a large (magnitude 9.0) earthquake occurred off the western coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake was caused by the release of stresses accumulated as the Burma tectonic plate overrides the India tectonic plate. Movement of the seafloor due to the earthquake generated a tsunami, or seismic sea wave, that affected coastal regions around the Indian Ocean. The northwestern Sumatra coastline in particular suffered extensive damage and loss of life. These astronaut photographs illustrate damage along the southwestern coast of Aceh Province in the vicinity of the city of Lho? Kruet, Indonesia. Large areas of bare and disturbed soil (brownish gray) that were previously covered with vegetation are visible along the coastline in the near-nadir (top) image. Embayments in the coastline were particularly hard hit, while adjacent headlands were less affected. The oblique (lower) astronaut photograph was acquired 45 seconds after the near-nadir photograph, and captures sunglint illuminating the Indian Ocean and standing water inland (light gray, yellow). Distortion and scale differences in the images are caused by increased obliquity of the view from the International Space Station. Arrows on the photographs indicate several points of comparison between the two images. Standing bodies of seawater may inhibit revegetation of damaged areas and act as sources of salt contamination in soil and groundwater. Astronaut photographs ISS010-E-13079 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS010&roll=E&frame=13079 ] (top) and ISS010-E-13088 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS010&roll=E&frame=13088 ] (bottom) were acquired January 15, 2005 with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 400 mm lens, and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	On December 26, 2004, a large (magnitude 9.0) earthquake occurred off the western coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The earthquake was caused by the release of stresses accumulated as the Burma tectonic plate overrides the India tectonic plate. Movement of the seafloor due to the earthquake generated a tsunami, or seismic sea wave, that affected coastal regions around the Indian Ocean. The northwestern Sumatra coastline in particular suffered extensive damage and loss of life. These astronaut photographs illustrate damage along the southwestern coast of Aceh Province in the vicinity of the city of Lho? Kruet, Indonesia. Large areas of bare and disturbed soil (brownish gray) that were previously covered with vegetation are visible along the coastline in the near-nadir (top) image. Embayments in the coastline were particularly hard hit, while adjacent headlands were less affected. The oblique (lower) astronaut photograph was acquired 45 seconds after the near-nadir photograph, and captures sunglint illuminating the Indian Ocean and standing water inland (light gray, yellow). Distortion and scale differences in the images are caused by increased obliquity of the view from the International Space Station. Arrows on the photographs indicate several points of comparison between the two images. Standing bodies of seawater may inhibit revegetation of damaged areas and act as sources of salt contamination in soil and groundwater. Astronaut photographs ISS010-E-13079 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS010&roll=E&frame=13079 ] (top) and ISS010-E-13088 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS010&roll=E&frame=13088 ] (bottom) were acquired January 15, 2005 with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 400 mm lens, and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]

Title	North Reef Island, Andaman Sea
Description	On December 26, 2004, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history struck offshore of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ocean floor heaved in some places and sank in others, creating catastrophic tsunamis that raced across the Indian Ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people died as the waves struck coastlines from Thailand to Sri Lanka to Somalia. In addition to tsunami damage, satellite images of reefs, islands, and coastlines identified signs of permanent elevation changesinking or upliftalong the fault between the Indo-Australia and Burma plates. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640 ] In places such as North Reef Island, shown in this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite, the quake lifted the reefs permanently out of the water. The images use visible and infrared light detected by ASTER to make different land surfaces stand out clearly from one another: water is blue, vegetation is red, coral or bare sand appears white. In the "before" image, from December 2, 2004, the submerged reef creates a bright blue glow around the island. In the "after" image, from February 4, 2005, the white coral stands completely up out of the water. It is even tinged with red, which suggests the exposed coral had died, and algae had colonized it. In the weeks and months after the earthquake, satellite images provided broad coverage of an area where ground-based observations were initially very limited. A team of scientists led by Caltech Ph.D. geology student Aron Meltzner discovered changes in elevation along nearly 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) of the tectonic plate boundary. The images revealed that the earthquake rupture extended 100 kilometers (62 miles) farther north than estimates based on seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) data suggested. The feature article Rise and Fall: Satellites Reveal Full Length of Tsunami-Generating Earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Aceh/aceh.html ] describes how scientists used satellite images to map the length of the earthquake rupture zone. The article includes additional satellite and ground-based images of elevation changes resulting from the 2004 Aceh-Andaman earthquake. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]

Title	North Reef Island, Andaman Sea
Description	On December 26, 2004, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history struck offshore of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ocean floor heaved in some places and sank in others, creating catastrophic tsunamis that raced across the Indian Ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people died as the waves struck coastlines from Thailand to Sri Lanka to Somalia. In addition to tsunami damage, satellite images of reefs, islands, and coastlines identified signs of permanent elevation changesinking or upliftalong the fault between the Indo-Australia and Burma plates. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640 ] In places such as North Reef Island, shown in this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite, the quake lifted the reefs permanently out of the water. The images use visible and infrared light detected by ASTER to make different land surfaces stand out clearly from one another: water is blue, vegetation is red, coral or bare sand appears white. In the "before" image, from December 2, 2004, the submerged reef creates a bright blue glow around the island. In the "after" image, from February 4, 2005, the white coral stands completely up out of the water. It is even tinged with red, which suggests the exposed coral had died, and algae had colonized it. In the weeks and months after the earthquake, satellite images provided broad coverage of an area where ground-based observations were initially very limited. A team of scientists led by Caltech Ph.D. geology student Aron Meltzner discovered changes in elevation along nearly 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) of the tectonic plate boundary. The images revealed that the earthquake rupture extended 100 kilometers (62 miles) farther north than estimates based on seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) data suggested. The feature article Rise and Fall: Satellites Reveal Full Length of Tsunami-Generating Earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Aceh/aceh.html ] describes how scientists used satellite images to map the length of the earthquake rupture zone. The article includes additional satellite and ground-based images of elevation changes resulting from the 2004 Aceh-Andaman earthquake. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]

Uplift and Subsidence Associated with the Great Aceh-Andaman Earthquake of 2004

Title	Uplift and Subsidence Associated with the Great Aceh-Andaman Earthquake of 2004
Original Caption Released with Image	The magnitude 9.2 Indian Ocean earthquake of December 26, 2004, produced broad regions of uplift and subsidence. In order to define the lateral extent and the downdip limit of rupture, scientists from Caltech, Pasadena, Calif., NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, Calif., the U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena, Calif., and the Research Center for Geotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Bandung, Indonesia, first needed to define the pivot line separating those regions. Interpretation of satellite imagery and a tidal model were one of the key tools used to do this. These pre-Sumatra earthquake (a) and post-Sumatra earthquake (b) images of North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, acquired from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, show emergence of the coral reef surrounding the island following the earthquake. The tide was 30 plus or minus 14 centimeters lower in the pre-earthquake image (acquired November 21, 2000) than in the post-earthquake image (acquired February 20, 2005), requiring a minimum of 30 centimeters of uplift at this locality. Observations from an Indian Coast Guard helicopter on the northwest coast of the island suggest that the actual uplift is on the order of 1 to 2 meters at this site. In figures (c) and (d), pre-earthquake and post-earthquake ASTER images of a small island off the northwest coast of Rutland Island, 38 kilometers east of North Sentinel Island, show submergence of the coral reef surrounding the island. The tide was higher in the pre-earthquake image (acquired January 1, 2004) than in the post-earthquake image (acquired February 4, 2005), requiring subsidence at this locality. The pivot line must run between North Sentinel and Rutland islands. Note that the scale for the North Sentinel Island images differs from that for the Rutland Island images. The tidal model used for this study was based on data from JPL's Topex/Poseidon satellite. The model was used to determine the relative sea surface height at each location at the time each image was acquired, a critical component used to quantify the deformation. The scientists' method of using satellite imagery to recognize changes in elevation relative to sea surface height and of using a tidal model to place quantitative bounds on coseismic uplift or subsidence is a novel approach that can be adapted to other forms of remote sensing and can be applied to other subduction zones in tropical regions. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with, critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats, monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, wetlands evaluation, thermal pollution monitoring, coral reef degradation, surface temperature mapping of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

General Description	International Space Station Imagery

General Description	International Space Station Imagery

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Browse All : Images of Indonesia and Indian Ocean from December 26, 2004