Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Since it is almost the nine year anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, I wanted to do a post from that part of the world.  While researching what is easily the most deadly event of the 2000s decade, the place I frequently read as being "hardest hit" was the city of Banda Aceh which is located near the northernmost point of Sumatra.  Out of the >230,000 people estimated killed by the tsunami, 160,000 were said to have been killed (or were missing) in or around the Banda Aceh area.  That's potentially 70% of the total amount of victims.

The before (1st image in gif) and after (2nd image in gif) give a pretty clear sense of the scale of damage.  From what I'm interpreting, it appears that the entire area contained in this image was inundated by the wave.  The silver lining is in the 3rd image of the gif.  After only four years (2009), the city looks much cleaner in aerial imagery, and reconstruction of the coastline seems to have taken place.  Still, the appearance of the coastline is now dramatically different from its pre-tsunami shape.

The gif below shows June 2004, January 2005 (1 month after tsunami), and February 2009 (~4 years after tsunami):

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     5°33'30"N    95°17'00"E  

More info from sources referenced: Tsunami Wikipedia, Banda Aceh Wikipedia, Dec 2012 Article

Check back for more in two weeks! (Unless I decide to take a break for the Holidays. We'll see.)

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Mount Merapi is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Java.  It erupts fairly frequently, with larger eruptions happening every 10 to 15 years.  The most recent eruption was in 2010 and killed 353 people.  However, in 2006 another eruption occurred.  This eruption was less powerful but it was captured pretty well on satellite imagery.  The eruptions began around the end of April and lasted through May.  Below are before, during, and after images. 

(facts and figures from wikipedia)

May 12, 2006

Wait for it...

May 25, 2006

Kablammo!  Gasses and ash abound!

September 10, 2006

Check out those new lava flows!

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      07°32'41.22"S    110°26'41.90"E

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Merapi#2006_eruption

Check back next week to see the town that returned from the depths.

Sidoarjo, Indonesia

On May 29, 2006, a natural gas well being drilled in Sidoarjo, Indonesia seemingly caused a mud volcano to erupt some 600 feet away.  There are a few different hypothesis as to how exactly this happened, including the company blaming the volcano on a distant earthquake, but most outside opinions say that a blow-out during drilling caused a fracture in a confining layer that was holding back the mud.

June, 2006

November, 2006

July, 2010

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      07°31'34.16"S   112°42'42.61"E

More info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow
Some Pictures:  http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/uO-VIreVKhE/Indonesia+Marks+5th+Anniversary+Lusi+Mud+Volcano/jKpAEGWZg8R

Check back next week to see the destruction caused by the costliest disaster in US history.