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The Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004 as observed in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans

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Abstract

The M w=9.3 megathrust earthquake of December 26, 2004 off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean generated a catastrophic tsunami that caused widespread damage in coastal areas and left more than 226,000 people dead or missing. The Sumatra tsunami was accurately recorded by a large number of tide gauges throughout the world's oceans. This paper examines the amplitudes, frequencies and wave train structure of tsunami waves recorded by tide gauges located more than 20,000 km from the source area along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America.

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Acknowledgements

Sea level records for the 2004 Sumatra tsunami were kindly provided to us by many individuals and organizations. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following organizations: the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), Seattle, Washington and Silver Springs, Maryland; the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center, Honolulu, Hawaii; the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, Palmer, Alaska; and the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), Sidney, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia. We also thank several people who helped us assemble and verify these data: Denny Sinnott and Neil Sutherland (Sidney, BC); Paul Whitmore and Bill Knight (Palmer, AK); Charles O’Reilly (Halifax, NS); Tatiana Ivelskaya (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia) and Modesto Ortiz (Ensenada, Mexico). The comments and suggestions of Efim Pelinovsky and Josef Cherniawsky were also much appreciated. We further thank Patricia Kimber (Sidney, BC) for helping draft the figures. Partial financial support was provided by the Russian Federation through RFBR Grant 05-05-64585.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Ocean Sciences Division, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, BC, Canada, V8L 4B2

    Alexander B. Rabinovich & Richard E. Thomson

  2. P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 36 Nakhimovsky Prosp., Moscow, 117997, Russia

    Alexander B. Rabinovich

  3. Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canadian Hydrographic Service, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, BC, Canada, V8L 4B2

    Fred E. Stephenson

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  1. Alexander B. Rabinovich
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Rabinovich, A., Thomson, R. & Stephenson, F. The Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004 as observed in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans. Surv Geophys 27, 647–677 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-006-9000-9

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