Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

2011 Edition
| Editors: Harsh K. Gupta

Tsunami: Bay of Bengal

Reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8702-7_229
How to cite

Definition

Bay of Bengal: Northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, which is about 2,000 km long and about 1,500 km wide, and is bordered on the west by India and Sri Lanka, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and Thailand; the Andaman and Nicobar Islands separate it from the Andaman Sea.

Tsunami: Gravity-driven water waves in the sea caused by submarine earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruption, and impact meteorites.

Introduction

The coastal region around the Bay of Bengal is one of the most populated regions of the world with population density of more than 1,000 people/km2 in Bangladesh and region around it. Natural hazards in this region, namely, floods and cyclones, have turned into disasters making this region very vulnerable. The occurrence of the December 26, 2004, Sumatra-Andaman earthquake (Mw 9.2) and the tsunami caused by it (Lay et al., 2005), which devastated the coastal regions around the Bay of Bengal and killed more than 200,000 people, further...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Bibliography

  1. Aung, T. T., Okamura, Y., Satake, K., Swe, W., Swe, T. L., Saw, H., and Tun, S. T., 2006. Paleoseismological field survey along the western coast of Myanmar. Annual Report on Active Fault and PaleoEarthquake Researches, Active Fault Research Center, Geological Survey of Japan, 6, 171–188.Google Scholar
  2. Aung, T. T., Satake, K., Okamura, Y., Shishikura, M., Swe, W., Saw, H., Swe, T. L., Tun, S. T., and Aung, T., 2008. Geologic evidence for great Holocene earthquakes off Myanmar. Phuket, Thailand: International Symposium on the Restoration Program from Giant Earthquakes and Tsunamis, pp. 13–18.Google Scholar
  3. Bilham, R. G., Engdahl, E. R., Feldl, N., and Satyabala, S. P., 2005. Partial and complete rupture of the Indo-Andaman plate boundary 1847–2004. Seismological Research Letters, 76, 299–311.Google Scholar
  4. Cummins, P. R., 2007. The potential for giant tsunamigenic earthquakes in the northern Bay of Bengal. Nature, 449, 75–78.Google Scholar
  5. Gahalaut, V. K., and Gahalaut, K., 2007. Burma plate motion. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, B10402, doi:10.1029/2007JB004928.Google Scholar
  6. Gahalaut, V. K., Nagrajan, B., Catherine, J. K., and Kumar, S., 2006. Constraints on 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake rupture from GPS measurements in Andaman-Nicobar Islands. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 242, 365–374, doi:10.10116/j.epsl.2005.11.051.Google Scholar
  7. Gahalaut, V. K., Kundu, B., Singh, S., Kumar, A., Tiwari, R. P., Catherine, J. K., and Ambikapathy, A., 2010a. GPS measurements in the Indo-Burmese arc, (in press).Google Scholar
  8. Gahalaut, V. K., Subrahmanyam, C., Kundu, B., Catherine, J. K., and Ambikapathy, A., 2010b. Slow rupture in Andaman during 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake: consequence of subduction of 90°E ridge. Geophysical Journal International, 180, 1181–1186.Google Scholar
  9. Gulston, E., 1763. An account of an earthquake at Chattigaon: translated from the Persian by Mr. Edward Gulston, in the service of the Honourable East India Company, and communicated by him to the Reverend Mr. Hirst. Philosophical Transactions, 53, 251–256.Google Scholar
  10. Gupta, H., and Gahalaut, V. K., 2009. Is the northern Bay of Bengal tsunamigenic. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 99, 3496–3501.Google Scholar
  11. Guzman-Speziale, M., and Ni, J. F., 1996. Seismicity and active tectonics of the western Sunda Arc. In Yin, A., and Harrison, T. M. (eds.), The Tectonic Evolution of Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 63–84.Google Scholar
  12. Hall, R., 1997. Cenozoic plate tectonic reconstructions of SE Asia, In Fraser, A. J., Methews, S. J., and Murphy, R. W. (eds.), Petroleum Geology of Southeast Asia, Geological Society of London Special publication No 126, pp. 11–23.Google Scholar
  13. Halsted, E. P., 1843. Report on the Island of Chedooba. Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 114, 319–446.Google Scholar
  14. Kundu, B., and Gahalaut, V. K., 2010a. An investigation into the seismic potential of the Irrawaddy region, northern Sunda Arc. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 100, 891–895.Google Scholar
  15. Kundu, B., and Gahalaut, V. K., 2010b. Earthquake occurrence processes in the Indo-Burmese arc and Sagaing fault region. Tectonics, (in press).Google Scholar
  16. Lay, T., Kanamori, H., Ammon, C. J., Nettles, M., Ward, S. N., et al., 2005. The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of December 26, 2004. Science, 308, 1127–1133.Google Scholar
  17. Martin, S., and Szeliga, W., 2010. A catalog of felt intensity data for 570 earthquakes in India from 1636 to 2009. Bulletin Seismological Society of America, 100, 562–569.Google Scholar
  18. Maurin, T., Masson, F., Claude Rangin, U., Min, T., and Collard, P., 2010. First global positioning system results in northern Myanmar: constant and localized slip rate along the Sagaing fault. Geology, 38, 591–594.Google Scholar
  19. McCaffrey, R., 2009. The tectonic framework of the Sumatran subduction zone. Annual Review of Earth Planetary Sciences, 37, 345–366.Google Scholar
  20. Okal, E. A., and Synolakis, C. E., 2008. Far-field tsunami hazard from mega-thrust earthquakes in the Indian Ocean. Geophysical Journal International, 172, 995–1015.Google Scholar
  21. Oldham, T., 1883. A catalogue of Indian earthquakes. Memoirs of Geological Survey of India, 19, 163–215.Google Scholar
  22. Ortiz, M., and Bilham, R., 2003. Source area and rupture parameters of the 31 December 1881 Mw = 7.9 Car Nicobar earthquake estimated from tsunamis recorded in the Bay of Bengal. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108, 2215.Google Scholar
  23. Pacheco, J. F., and Sykes, L. R., 1992. Seismic moment catalogue of large shallow earthquakes, 1900 to 1989. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 82, 1306–1349.Google Scholar
  24. Pesicek, J. D., Thurber, C. H., Widiyantooro, S., Zhang, H., DeShon, H. R., and Engdahl, E. R., 2010. Sharpening the tomographic image of the subducting slab below Sumatra, the Andaman Islands and Burma. Geophysical Journal International, 182, 433–453.Google Scholar
  25. Rajendran, C. P., Rajendran, K., Anu, R., Earnest, A., Machado, T., Mohan, P. M., and Freymueller, J., 2007. Crustal deformation and seismic history associated with the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: a perspective from the Andaman–Nicobar Islands. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 97, S174–S191.Google Scholar
  26. Rao, N. P., and Kumar, M. R., 1999. Evidences for cessation of Indian plate subduction in the Burmese arc region. Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 3149–3152.Google Scholar
  27. Richards, S., Lister, G., and Kennett, B., 2007. A slab in depth: three dimensional geometry and evolution of the Indo-Australian plate. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 12, Q12003, doi:10.1029/2007GC001657.Google Scholar
  28. Richter, C. F., 1958. Elementary Seismology. San Francisco: Freeman, p. 768.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR)HyderabadIndia