Medieval forewarning of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand

Kruawun Jankaew (), Brian F. Atwater, Yuki Sawai, Montri Choowong, Thasinee Charoentitirat, Maria E. Martin and Amy Prendergast
Additional contact information
Kruawun Jankaew: Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Brian F. Atwater: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA
Yuki Sawai: Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Site C7 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan
Montri Choowong: Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Thasinee Charoentitirat: Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Maria E. Martin: University of Washington, Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA
Amy Prendergast: Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia

Nature, 2008, vol. 455, issue 7217, 1228-1231

Abstract: Sands of time: Traces of recurring tsunamis on Indian Ocean shores Nothing known from written history gave reason to expect the Indian Ocean tsunami that took nearly a quarter million lives on 26 December 2004. That tsunami entered geological history by laying down centimetres of sand on the coastal plains that it overran. Jankaew et al. have now found such sedimentary records of earlier tsunamis preserved in the dark soils of marshy swales at Phra Thong, a barrier island in western Thailand. The cover shows an example from a pit dug there in 2007: the topmost light-coloured layer represents the 2004 tsunami, while a similar layer below records a tsunami in the fourteenth or fifteenth century AD. The ruler divisions are 10 cm long. In a separate study in Aceh, Indonesia, Monecke et al. found the 2004 sand sheet preceded by the deposits of three tsunamis from the past 1,200 years. One of these earlier deposits may match the medieval one found in Thailand. The combined findings suggest that the 2004 tsunami is neither the first nor the last of its kind.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07373

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