Browse All : Images of Indonesia and Sri Lanka 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 Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ]

Title	Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
Description	The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in Indonesia were over 80,000more than half the global total. The town of Lhoknga, on the west coast of Sumatra near the capital of Aceh, Banda Aceh, was completely destroyed by the tsunami, with the exception of the mosque in the city's center. These high-resolution satellite images, acquired by Space Imaging's [ http://www.spaceimaging.com/ ] Ikonos satellite, show Lhoknga before (lower) and after (top) the earthquake and Tsunami. Almost all the trees, vegetation, and buildings in the area were washed away. Behind the town, low-lying agricultural areas remained covered with water 4 days after the disaster, and sand on the nearby beaches was completely removed. The wave height [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12645 ] might have exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) when it struck the shore. Equivalent devestation extends 225 km southeast along the Sumatran Coast, in a band up to 3 km (1.9 miles) deep. Imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12644 ] (above) shows the affected area as a thin strip of brown along the coast. Ikonos images copyright Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, [ http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/ ] National University of Singapore and Space Imaging. [ http://www.spaceimaging.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	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/ ]

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Browse All : Images of Indonesia and Sri Lanka from December 26, 2004