If 90% of a population was indeed wiped out, I'd be interested in the genetic impact to that population. In Human history there were events that took our populations into the 1000's from what I understand and the results of that devastation had long term impacts on who we are today.
here is another link to some videos (with lots of mirrors) http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html
It gets worse.. There are some Indian islands, that are further out from the main Indian subcontinent where reports aren't in yet. I heard last night that its possible that some of these islands might have lost 50% of their population.
As terrible as this is I don't think we'll see major impacts on Indonesia's population. Indonesia has a population of 170 mil so those areas will probably be resettled. What is ironic about this is that there was an entrenched rebellion going in Aceh but with probably 25% of the population their killed that will probably end the rebellion. Also the rebels have agreed to cooperate with the government in getting relief. OTOH on the Jaffna Penisula in Sri Lanka there's been a rebellion going on for 25 years and there the rebels are refusing to work with the government or international community. So far the only to get aid to rebel held areas is to air drop it in.
Wow. Some of those videos, well all really, are just mindboggling. If you haven't spent a lot of time on a beachwith bigger waves, you just have no idea how strong the currents are. On one of those videos you can hear a guy saying "they should be all right, hopefully they can all swim". Doesn't matter if you can swim or not. Last time I was in Hawaii I was body-boarding on some relatively decent size waves for someone who really had only done it once or twice in their life. I caught this one wave, maybe 4 or 5 feet tall at the crest, and it got me right at the top, slammed me down and my face into my board - very strained neck, cut up all one side of my face...relatively harmless looking wave.
Look at the activity increase after the 9.0 tsunami earthquake. http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/bulletin.html
Very interesting point you brought up. I think this will have little impact on the gene frequency, because although these people lived on islands, they did interact [and surely mate] with the main islanders; thus preserving the gene diversity. It is true in history when secluded islands with humans were faced with disaster and a large % of the population was wiped out, this population faced dramatic changes in gene frequency. Darwin's theory of evolution only makes sense if there is no migration. Fortunately, the islands destroyed by the tsunami were close to one another.
So sad, the Christmas and the day after, we were all happy about our lucky weather, all the snow, I guess with the good comes the bad. Another sad thing is people taking money saying it is for the victims and just keeping it.
Does anyone know where I can find pictures of the waves, like da satellite ones that have been posted above?!?! I know of some people that died from the tsunamis and have a work friend who left for phuket, thailand on the 23rd and we have not heard from him as yet. :O( I would just like to see any pictures of the wave itself and not of the victims...
These are just frame grabs from Patong beach (low quality). Before this wave came in the water was very calm just a small lapping shore break. The face of the tsunami is about 30-40 feet and the 'width' (from the face to back) is well over a kilometer. The wave at Patong is probably the most dramatic i've seen so far ~ most videos just show what looks like an extremely heavy tide or tidal bore coming in relentlessly.
This whole thing is incredible! Can someone explain the Richter Scaling system? I understand its based on logarithms, with this quake being rated at a 9 Does that mean that this earthquake was 10x greater than an earthquake rated an 8 and 100x greater than one rated at a 7? Wikipedia has a great entry about the whole quake with pictures and other info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
An 9.0 is twice as bad as 8.9 and a 9.1 is twice as bad as a 9.0. I've always wondered how they'd measure one that is only 50% worse than another. You'd think they'd have a more accurate measuring system.
Most of the people in the last two pics are laughing. I dont think they realized at that moment the extent of what was about to happen. Dont blame em though. I dont think many people would.
