Reader Jim wrote to inquire why the low-lying Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives survived the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It's a great question and I discovered a great answer on the Science News for Kids website. It turns out that the Maldives made it mostly unscathed through the tsunami because they lie in deep ocean water and thus tsunami waves didn't have time to grow to great heights. The tsunami waves that struck the Maldives (which has the world's lowest maximum elevation) were only a fifth as tall as those that struck Thailand.
Why Weren't The Maldives Destroyed by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami?
By Matt Rosenberg, About.com GuideJune 16, 2011
Explore Geography
Comments
That’s very interesting about the Maldives. I find many neat things on children’s websites sometimes.
Yes, that makes sense. Here’s a different scenario. The ocean floor along Sri Lanka’s east coast, though lying quite deep, extends far out for hundreds of kilometres, providing the tsunami wave with considerable ‘fetch’ for it to build up into the monster it was, rising to 30-35 ft near Kalmunai in the Eastern Province.
Raj
Not only that. There is another theory. We know that the Indian subterrain coast extends southwards dividing the island of Srilanka from Maladives. A part of the wave travelling in a straight line to Somalian coast would have been deflected by this subterranian shelf forcing the wave to change its course by 90 degrees to right (North East) and forcing this wave hitting South West Indian and Srilankan coasts, especially Cape Comerin’s (Kanyakumari)eastern portion.
I have read some more on the waves travelling. Nowhere it is mentioned that the depth has a direct bearing on the direction. If one to understand correctly, the wave gets dissipated down below towards the bottom of the sea (due to the depth) reducing the intensity. But Maldive islands are coral reefs making it shallow areas near it. Then that theory will not hold good. The theory of deflection is some more strong as it explains the waves striking the west coast of Srilanka and the SE coast of India. The intensity was not substantially reduced when it reached Somalia either.