Cornell tsunami expert leads scientific delegation into wave-ravaged Southeast Asia.

In a preliminary report about the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami’s magnitude, Cornell Professor Philip Liu said three large waves engulfed Sri Lanka’s coastal areas, and it was the second wave—the largest of the three—that cost people their lives.

Liu, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, led a group of U.S. scientists to the eastern and southern shores of Sri Lanka between Jan. 9 and 16 and then visited Thailand. He returned from his investigative trip, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, in late January.

A veteran of examining tsunami effects, Liu was struck by the power of this killer wave. “The destruction was more severe than I anticipated and the magnitude of destruction was beyond any imagination,” he said. “The 1992 tsunami in Indonesia was severe, but it was nothing like this one.”

Liu spoke to many eyewitnesses. They explained they saw three waves, and this corroborates the general belief that three earthquakes over a 10-minute period caused the tsunami series.

The waves traveled at jetliner speeds—about 500 miles an hour—through the Indian Ocean and struck Sri Lanka about two hours later. The waves measured between three and six meters (or 10 and 18 feet) high, he said. Because the coastal plain of Sri Lanka is relatively flat—that is, with a very slight slope—the ocean water poured inland between 500 meters (the length of five American football fields laid end-to-end) and two kilometers (about a mile and a half).

To learn the height of the highest wave, Liu and his team examined the trunks of trees in the vicinity of the shore. The wave was so powerful that it easily stripped away the bark and left a high water mark. He found ocean silt on the rooftops of structures still standing.

One hospital, built near the shore, had been obliterated. The waves overpowered the building, sweeping the patients, nurses, and doctors into the sea.

This tsunami, he said, points to a need for common sense when choosing where to build homes, schools, hospitals and commercial establishments. Even brick structures near the shore, thought to be solid, crumbled when the wave struck.

The purpose of the trip was to obtain information to further understanding of these waves to improve predictive capabilities and help future development of tsunami warning systems.

—Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Cornell News Service