The 2004 Indian tsunami in Thailand: Surveyed runup heights and tide gauge records

Abstract

Abstract Tsunami accompanied with the Sumatra earthquake of 26 December 2004 affected many countries around the Indian Ocean. Thailand located approximately 500 km east of its source, was also severely suffered from the tsunami. From 24 February through 4 March 2005, we surveyed the damaged areas in Thailand from south of Phuket Island up to the border of Myanmar including four islands. The whole coastal area facing the Andaman Sea could be covered. We measured 37 points in total, the tsunami heights are less than 10 m, except at a few locations. We found that the largest tsunami height reached up to 19.6 m at Ban Thung Dap of Phra Thong Island. During our survey, we also collected five paper copies of analog tide gauge records. In addition that we could detect two other tide gauge records from the web-site. Therefore, totally seven tide gauge records were obtained in Thailand. All of the recorded tsunami waveforms indicate that sea level initially withdrew with duration in 30 to 60 min, followed by the rising-up. This phenomenon corresponds to the eyewitnesses’ accounts of the survivors who experienced the tsunami.