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Damage and Height Distribution of Sumatra Earthquake-Tsunami of December 26, 2004, in Banda Aceh City and its Environs
Yoshinobu Tsuji*1, Yuichiro Tanioka*2, Hideo Matsutomi*3, Yuichi Nishimura*2, Takanobu Kamataki*4, Yoshikane Murakami*5, Tsutomu Sakakiyama*6, Andrew Moore*7, Guy Gelfenbaum*8, Sindhu Nugroho*9, Budi Waluyo*9, Inyoman Sukanta*9, Rahmat Triyono*9, and Yuichi Namegaya*1
*1Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo
*2Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hokkaido University
*3Faculty of Engineering and Resource Science, University of Akita, Akita City, Japan
*4Active Fault Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Science City, Ibaragi Ken, Japan
*5Kansai Electric Power Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan
*6Fluid Science Division, Central Research, Institute of Electric Power Industry, Abiko city, Chiba Ken, Japan
*7Kent State University, USA
*8U.S. Geological Survey
*9Meteorological and Geophysical Agency, Indonesia
Received:June 7, 2006Accepted:June 8, 2006Published:August 1, 2006
Keywords:the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake-Tsunami, tsunami run-up height, field survey of tsunami suffering coast, tsunami damage of a city, Banda Aceh
Abstract
A huge earthquake of magnitude M 9.0 occurred at 00:58 (UT), December 26, 2004, in the sea off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, followed by a huge tsunami that hit almost all coasts facing the Indian Ocean. We conducted a field survey in the residential area of Banda Aceh, the town of the severest damage by the tsunami, on the west coast of the northernmost point Sumatra, Sigli City, about 80 kilometers east of Banda Aceh three-four weeks after the event. In Banda Aceh, almost all houses in the residential area about 2 km from the coast were swept away, while houses more than 3 km rarely were. Inundation continued about 5 to 6 km from the shoreline. In Lhoknga and several villages on the west coast of Sumatra Island near Banda Aceh, where tsunamis 15 to 30 meters high hit coastal villages, nobody survived. Along the valley about 1 km north of the cement plant, seawater rose to a height of 34.8 m above MSL, which is the highest recorded inundation measured in our survey.
Cite this article as:Y. Tsuji, Y. Tanioka, H. Matsutomi, Y. Nishimura, T. Kamataki, Y. Murakami, T. Sakakiyama, A. Moore, G. Gelfenbaum, S. Nugroho, B. Waluyo, I. Sukanta, R. Triyono, and Y. Namegaya, “Damage and Height Distribution of Sumatra Earthquake-Tsunami of December 26, 2004, in Banda Aceh City and its Environs,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.1 No.1, pp. 103-115, 2006.Data files:
