Records of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean with a particular focus on the northern end of the Bay of Bengal
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Date
2021-07-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
Abstract
The Indian Ocean was considered to have a low tsunami risk in comparison to the Pacific Ocean but the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has challenged that idea. Recently, debate has arisen regarding the potential tsunamigenic nature of the Northern Bay of Bengal region. To test this debate, we document historical tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region with a particular focus on the Northern Bay of Bengal (Latitude 15oS to 29oN and Longitude 70oE to 106oE) through detailed analysis of records contained within online global tsunami catalogues, regional tsunami databases, research papers, newspapers and so on. A total of 122 tsunamis are reported in the existing datasets. After completing a process of validity assessment, we recognised 29 definite tsunamis, 17 very probable tsunamis, 20 possible tsunamis, 30 doubtful tsunamis, 19 events that only caused a seiche or disturbance in an inland river and seven as erroneously reported events, which are cyclones or earthquakes. We record 13 reported tsunamis having occurred prior to 1800 AD and 109 tsunamis between 1800 AD and August 2010. Of the reported events, the tsunamis of 2 April 1762, 11 November 1842, 31 December 1881, 27 August 1883, 5 May 1930 and 24 December 2004 severely impacted the northern Bay of Bengal and adjoining regions. We encountered a number of challenges while recording data from the sourced documents, which include: incorrect and incomplete citations, difference in dates from different sources for the occurrence of the same event, contradictory descriptions of earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones.
Description
Keywords
Indian Ocean, Tsunamis, Natural disasters, Data analysis, Earthquakes, Asia
Citation
Alarm, E., Dominey-Howes, D., Goff, J., & Chagué-Goff, C. (2011). Records of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean with a particular focus on the northern end of the Bay of Bengal. Paper presented to the 2011 International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly, Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, 28 June - 7 July 2011, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from http://iugg.org/archive/iugg2011/tourhosts.com.au/live/iugg2011/pdf/IUGG2011_FinalEntireProgram.6June.pdf