Thailand Tsunami 2004?

Question

what was its affect on the biosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere?

Answer 1

The 2004 tsunami was caused by the 2nd most severe earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.  The disaster was the worst recorded in recent history, and was horrifying.

"The U.S. Geological Survey initially recorded the toll as 283,100 killed, 14,100 missing, and 1,126,900 people displaced. However, more recent analysis compiled by the United Nations lists a total of 229,866 people lost, including 186,983 dead and 42,883 missing."

"With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.5 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska."

"It has been reported that severe damage has been inflicted on ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, forests, coastal wetlands, vegetation, sand dunes and rock formations, animal and plant biodiversity and groundwater. In addition, the spread of solid and liquid waste and industrial chemicals, water pollution and the destruction of sewage collectors and treatment plants threaten the environment even further, in untold ways. The environmental impact will take a long time and significant resources to assess."

The death toll among animals and plants would be similar to the human death tole.  Large areas were totally denuded , leaving no evidence that anything ever lived there.

The effect on the biosphere (extrapolated from loss of human life:

(230,000)(100) / 8,000,000,000 = 0.002875% for about a generation

The effect on the lithosphere:

(1 cm)(100) / (100 km) = 0.00001% vibration for about 10 minutes

The effect on the hydrosphere:

(30 m)(100) / (10,924 m) = 0.275% for about a week at most

As brutal and callous as it sounds, if you expand your focus too far (as far as these spheres), the worst tsunami in recorded history had an insignificant effect.  

Answer 2

There is a brief non-scientific article in wikipedia.  If you read it, you can get some other sources and actually do your own research.

Answer 3

none

AM