Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Medieval forewarning of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand

Nature volume 455, pages 1228–1231 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent centuries provide no precedent for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, either on the coasts it devastated or within its source area. The tsunami claimed nearly all of its victims on shores that had gone 200 years or more without a tsunami disaster1. The associated earthquake of magnitude 9.2 defied a Sumatra–Andaman catalogue that contains no nineteenth-century or twentieth-century earthquake larger than magnitude 7.9 (ref. 2). The tsunami and the earthquake together resulted from a fault rupture 1,500 km long that expended centuries’ worth of plate convergence2,3,4,5. Here, using sedimentary evidence for tsunamis6, we identify probable precedents for the 2004 tsunami at a grassy beach-ridge plain 125 km north of Phuket. The 2004 tsunami, running 2 km across this plain, coated the ridges and intervening swales with a sheet of sand commonly 5–20 cm thick. The peaty soils of two marshy swales preserve the remains of several earlier sand sheets less than 2,800 years old. If responsible for the youngest of these pre-2004 sand sheets, the most recent full-size predecessor to the 2004 tsunami occurred about 550–700 years ago.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Setting.
Figure 2: Cross-sectional shape of sand sheets.
Figure 3: Parallel laminae and radiocarbon ages.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dominey-Howes, D., Cummins, P. & Burbidge, D. Historic records of teletsunami in the Indian Ocean and insights from numerical modeling. Nat. Hazards 42, 1–17 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bilham, R., Engdahl, R., Feldl, N. & Satyabala, S. P. Partial and complete rupture of the Indo-Andaman Plate boundary 1847–2004. Seismol. Res. Lett. 76, 299–311 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lovholt, F. et al. Earthquake related tsunami hazard along the western coast of Thailand. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 6, 979–997 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Stein, S. & Okal, E. A. Ultralong period seismic study of the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and implications for regional tectonics and the subduction process. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 97, S279–S295 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chlieh, M. et al. Coseismic slip and afterslip of the great Mw 9.15 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 97, S152–S173 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bourgeois, J. in The Sea Vol. 15 (eds Bernard, E. N. & Robinson, A. R.) (Harvard Univ. Press, in the press)

  7. Tsuji, Y. et al. The 2004 Indian tsunami in Thailand; surveyed runup heights and tide gauge records. Earth Planets Space 58, 223–232 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lyall, K. Out of the Blue: Facing the Tsunami (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hori, K. et al. Horizontal and vertical variation of 2004 Indian tsunami deposits; an example of two transects along the western coast of Thailand. Mar. Geol. 239, 163–172 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Choowong, M. et al. 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami inflow and outflow at Phuket, Thailand. Mar. Geol. 248, 179–192 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fujino, S. et al. in Tsunamiites—Features and Implications (eds Shiki, T., Tsuji, Y., Minoura, K. & Yamazaki, T.) 123–132 (Elsevier, 2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  12. Fujino, S. et al. in Proc. Int. Symp. on Restoration Program from Giant Earthquakes and Tsunamis (ed. Kato, T.) 115–121 (Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Horton, B. P. et al. Holocene sea levels and palaeoenvironments, Malay-Thai Peninsula, Southeast Asia. Holocene 15, 1199–1213 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hemphill-Haley, E. Diatoms as an aid in identifying late-Holocene tsunami deposits. Holocene 6, 439–448 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Kamatani, A. Dissolution rates of silica from diatoms decomposing at various temperatures. Mar. Biol. 68, 91–96 (1982)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Donnelly, J. P., Butler, J., Roll, S., Wengren, M. & Webb, T. A backbarrier overwash record of intense storms from Brigantine, New Jersey. Mar. Geol. 210, 107–121 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Gray, W. M. in Storms Vol. 1 (eds Pilke, R. J. & Pilke, R. S.) 145–163 (Routledge, 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Pant, G. B. & Rupa Kumar, K. Climates of South Asia 320 (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Murty, T. S. & Flather, R. A. Impact of storm surges in the Bay of Bengal. J. Coast. Res. 12 (Spec. Iss.). 149–161 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Monecke, K. et al. A 1,000-year sediment record of tsunami recurrence in northern Sumatra. Nature 10.1038/nature07374 (this issue)

  21. Rajendran, K. et al. Age estimates of coastal terraces in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and their tectonic implications. Tectonophysics 455, 53–60 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battūta, A.D. 1325–1354 vol. 4 (transl. Gibb, H. A. R.) (Hakluyt Society, 1994)

  23. Dreyer, E. L. Zheng He: China and the oceans in the early Ming dynasty 1405–1433 (Pearson Longman, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Okal, E. A. & Synolakis, C. E. Far-field tsunami hazard from mega-thrust earthquakes in the Indian Ocean. Geophys. J. Int. 172, 995–1015 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Heidarzadeh, M. et al. Historical tsunami in the Makran Subduction Zone off the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan and results of numerical modeling. Ocean Eng. 35, 774–786 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Ortiz, M. & Bilham, R. Source area and rupture parameters of the 31 December 1881 M w = 7.9 Car Nicobar earthquake estimated from tsunamis recorded in the Bay of Bengal. J. Geophys. Res. 108 (B4) 2215 10.1029/2002JB001941 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Satake, K. et al. Tsunami heights and damage along the Myanmar coast from the December 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake. Earth Planets Space 58, 243–252 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Siripong, A. Andaman seacoast of Thailand field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Earthq. Spectra 22, 187–202 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Choi, B. H. Analysis and modeling of the distribution functions of runup heights of the December 26, 2004 earthquake tsunami in the Indian Ocean. 〈http://wave.skku.ac.kr/tsunami_survey_data/KEERC.report.pdf〉

  30. Hawkes, A. D. et al. Sediments deposited by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami along the Malaysia–Thailand Peninsula; Quaternary land–ocean interactions; sea-level change, sediments and tsunami. Mar. Geol. 242, 169–190 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank B. Korsakun for logistical help; C. Tongjeen for permission for digging; V. Chutakositkanon, V. Jittanoon, T. Machado, T. Napradit, S. Pailoplee, S. Phantuwongraj, N. Rajeshwara Rao, S. Srinivasalu, P. Surakiatchai and A. Weerahong for contributions to Phra Thong field and laboratory work; Y. Fujii for providing bathymetric data; and S. Bondevik, M. Cisternas, H. Kelsey, A. Meltzner, K. Sieh, M. Tuttle and J. Woodruff for reviews. This report evolved from surveys supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand), the National Science Foundation (USA), and the US Agency for International Development (participants are listed in Supplementary Table 3). Additional funding was provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (to Y.S.), the Thailand Research Fund (to M.C.), and Chulalongkorn University (through P. Charusiri).

Author Contributions All authors participated in the fieldwork, led by K.J. (Supplementary Table 1). B.A. prepared most of the manuscript. Y.S. analysed the diatoms and prepared several of the figures.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand,

    Kruawun Jankaew, Montri Choowong & Thasinee Charoentitirat

  2. US Geological Survey at Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA,

    Brian F. Atwater

  3. Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Site C7 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan ,

    Yuki Sawai

  4. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA,

    Maria E. Martin

  5. Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia ,

    Amy Prendergast

Authors
  1. Kruawun Jankaew
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Brian F. Atwater
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuki Sawai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Montri Choowong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Thasinee Charoentitirat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Maria E. Martin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Amy Prendergast
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kruawun Jankaew.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Figures S1-S7 with Legends and Supplementary Tables S1-S3 (PDF 4776 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jankaew, K., Atwater, B., Sawai, Y. et al. Medieval forewarning of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand. Nature 455, 1228–1231 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07373

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07373

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing