[irised] Second Anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

[John or Jan Lahr]

Below is an excerpt from December newsletter of 
the Windows to the Universe program.
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/

  Second Anniversary of South-East Asian Tsunami
by <http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/bio/Roberta.html>Roberta

December 26th brings the second anniversary of 
the 
<http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/headline_universe/earth_science/stories_2004/tsunami_news.html>massive 
tsunami in 2004 which brought destruction and 
death to many countries bordering the Indian 
Ocean in response to the 
<http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/>massive 
earthquake which struck that morning west of 
Sumatra. Hundreds of thousands of people died in 
this disaster, which brought home the destructive 
power of Earth processes, and reminded us all how 
important it is to teach people how to respond to 
imminent natural disasters. The story of 
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0118_050118_tsunami_geography_lesson.html>Tilly 
Smith, who put her knowledge into action on the 
beach in Phuket that morning because of a lesson 
she had at school, saving many lives, reminds me 
of how important your role as educators is!

The 
<http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2006/usvcam/#summary>Kuril 
Islands earthquake (8.3 on the Richter scale) on 
November 15, 2006, reminded us of the 
<http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/tsunami1.html>link 
between earthquakes and tsunamis. A tsunami 
warning was issued for a vast region of coastline 
bordering the Pacific Ocean for a wave up to 6 
feet, and many locations did observe a 
<http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/previous.events/11.15.2006/11-15-06.html>measurable 
wave. Surprisingly, just the day before on 
November 14, 2006, the 
<http://www.nytimes.com/>New York Times ran an 
interesting article in their Science Times 
section, 
"<http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?resñ061FF63D5A0C778DDDA80994DE404482>Ancient 
Crash, Epic Wave", about research underway to 
determine if ancient chevron deposits distributed 
around the world record the destruction of 
mega-tsunamis up to 600 feet high, in response to 
the possible impacts of 
<http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/our_solar_system/asteroids.html>asteroids 
or 
<http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/comets.html>comets. 
A session at the upcoming 
<http://www.agu.org>American Geophysical Union 
(AGU) <http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/>meeting 
in San Francisco, California, on December 14th 
will explore the evidence linking these surface 
features with great impacts. Finally, a reminder 
that the Geophysical Information for Teachers 
(GIFT) workshop at the AGU meeting will focus on 
earthquakes and tsunamis (see partner announcement below).