What caused the Indian Ocean Tsunami to be so devastating?

by kartikayguptalivecouk (student)

“What caused the Indian Ocean Tsunami to be so devastating?” On 26th of December 2004, a great earthquake caused a tsunami which became a cause of 230,000 deaths, 125,000 injuries and 1,690,000 homeless people. This was one of the biggest disasters of the decade. The tsunami caused problems in all areas including social, economic, political and environmental. The social causes which made this tsunami a complete disaster were the naivety of people by ignoring warnings and staying close to the coast and beaches. Also the wealth of people meant this tsunami

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was devastating. In India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand; 40% of their population is below the poverty line. This again meant lack of awareness and protection. Also they did not have money to recover or have insurance due to being poor. This meant lots of people were permanently homeless and this led to economic problems. Economic causes were that the governments were in debt already and the damage meant they could not recover quickly so it became a long term effect. Some of the political causes were trade and aid. The aid was very slow from the governments and for a lot of these countries trade was their main source of wealth and with the tsunami a lot of trade ways and goods were destroyed so the countries suffered. Environmental causes were lack of trees and nature as they hold soil together to prevent things from being carried away. This tsunami also became devastation due to lack of warning systems and infrastructure. This includes no existence of a tide gage; poor roads and the lack of hospitals. Here are the effects. The social side was what really suffered. Thousands of families destroyed. There was a lot or mourning and sadness. Poor people suffered a lot due to lack of homes while the rich also suffered by losing homes and possession but they had some form of insurance. The whole world suffered economically due to the major devastation caused by the tsunami. The demolition of buildings, homes, hotels and other infrastructure was a huge economical blow to the government. £10 billon of damage was shared among India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Countries however were generous; politically they loaned billions of pounds to help the countries who were worst struck. Some countries like the UK send helicopters in aid to help the people in danger. Some of the environmental effects were that habitats were destroyed and clean water supply was contaminated for years. The local impacts were the damage of infrastructure, death of millions, and the government going in debt. The global impacts of this tsunami were that the trading was blocked which meant no export or import. Also there was after shock earthquakes of up to 6.1 magnitudes which caused a bit of havoc. The world shook by 2 cm which also affected the globe.