The Indian Ocean tsunami caused extensive flooding to the Maldives, damaging structures and displacing over 8,000 residents of the island nation. Remarkably, some low-lying regions were spared from damage.

Hermann Fritz of Georgia Tech, Savannah, (left) and Costas Synolakis of the University of Southern California (right) toured the Maldives by seaplane.

Credit: © Costas Synolakis, University of Southern California

The Maldives—a small nation roughly 1.7 times the size of Washington, D.C.—are composed of 1,190 coral islands off the southwestern coast of India. Most of the country is covered by water, and the low elevation (1.5 meters above sea level) of its 200 inhabited islands made it especially vulnerable during the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Costas Synolakis, director of the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California and Georgia Tech Savannah, researcher Hermann Fritz, traveled to the Maldives on Jan. 17, 2005, to collect data and survey damage caused by the event.

While some parts of the Maldives were completely inundated during the tsunami, others were barely affected. The team is comparing data collected from the heaviest and least damaged islands to investigate the disparity.

They have already reconstructed wave heights at different locations using precisely-mapped measurements of watermarks on buildings and debris in trees. The team’s ultimate goal is to determine what features—including ocean water depths, geography and regional landscape—spared certain islands from destruction.

Synolakis suspects the geometry of the islands is the reason some regions escaped disaster and others did not. "Perhaps it is the shape of the fringe and coral reef, perhaps it has something to do with the continental shelf," he speculates.

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In the Maldives, as many as 4,000 structures were damaged by the tsunami. Fritz and Synolakis reconstructed wave heights in affected areas by measuring the location of debris in trees and watermarks on buildings.

Credit: © Costas Synolakis, University of Southern California