'Stunning' Nepal Buddha art find BBC - May 4, 2007
'Stunning' Nepal Buddha art find BBC - May 4, 2007
India Acquired Language, Not Genes, From West, Study Says National Geographic - January 11, 2006
Tsunami among world's worst disasters - December 26, 2004 - BBC
The massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean has been described by relief experts as one of the worst natural disasters in recent history.
With a death toll so far of well over 100,000, the wave is particularly notable for the extent of its reach, from Indonesia in the east, to the coast of Africa, some 7,000km (4,000 miles) away.
The high numbers of Westerners affected and the speed at which footage from the disaster has reached our television screens have also added to its impact.
The highest death toll from a tsunami until now happened in 1896, when 27,000 people were drowned following an earthquake off the coast of Japan, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Cyclones and famine
But there have been other natural disasters which have also claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In 1970, up to 500,000 people were killed in Bangladesh when a cyclone whipped up winds of 230 km/h which swept away entire villages.
China suffered similar losses when an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 almost obliterated the north-eastern city of Tangshan in 1976. The official number of people killed was put at around 250,000, although some said the figure was more like 750,000.
In 1984 and 1985, a famine in Ethiopia killed an estimated 900,000 people.
Last year, a 6.3 quake devastated the Iranian city of Bam, killing 26,271, according to official figures.
Hurricane Mitch, which devastated much of Honduras and Nicaragua in Central America in 1998, killed 10,000 people and left some two million homeless.
The 1988 earthquake in Armenia, measuring 6.9, killed nearly 25,000.
And one of the worst monsoons in living memory claimed the lives of 10,000 people in Thailand over the course of three months in 1983. Some 100,000 people contracted waterborne diseases as a result of the storm.
Snow storms, forest fires and avalanches have all proved deadly. A single landslide in Peru in 1970 killed more than 18,000 people in the town of Yungay.
In 1887, about 900,000 people died when the Yellow River in China burst its banks in the worst-ever recorded flooding.
A volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa island in 1815 claimed the lives of more than 90,000 people as a blanket of lava and ash covered all around it, leading to agricultural devastation, famine and disease.
China's Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces lost an estimated 830,000 people when they were hit, in 1556, by one of the worst earthquakes in history.
For a few minutes, after the water had receded far from the shore and before it came raging back as a tsunami, the fishermen stood along the beach and stared at the reality of generations of legends. Or so they say. Spread across nearly a mile, the site was encrusted with barnacles and covered in mud. But the fishermen insist they saw the remains of ancient temples and hundreds of refrigerator-sized blocks, all briefly exposed before the sea swallowed them up again.
"You could see the destroyed walls covered in coral, and the broken-down temple in the middle," said Durai, a sinewy fisherman who, like many south Indians, uses only one name. "My grandfathers said there was a port here once and a temple, but suddenly we could see it was real, we could see that something was out there."
Whatever they saw is back under water and out of sight. But a few hundred yards away, something else came to the surface. The tsunami scrubbed away six feet of sand from a section of beach, uncovering a small cluster of long-buried boulders carved with animals, gods and servant girls.
The Dec. 26 tsunami savaged hundreds of miles of shoreline across Asia. It killed at least 126,000 people in Indonesia and at least 31,000 in Sri Lanka. In India, 10,700 people are confirmed dead, with more than 5,600 missing.
Mahabalipuram, India is the capital of an ancient kingdom and famous for its elaborate Hindu temples, escaped mostly unscathed, with only three dead and limited damage.
And there's something else the tsunami gave back - tourists, drawn by heated headlines in the Indian media about a rediscovered Atlantis.
But what did those fisherman see? Archaeologists laugh at the tales of Atlantis and say it may take years of undersea exploration to uncover the truth.
But nearly everyone around here knows the stories - cocktails of history and mythology that tell of the great port city that traded with China and Southeast Asia some 1,300 years ago.
This is a town made for legend. It is home to dozens of Hindu temples, baroque stone structures often covered with carvings. But legend speaks of its most famous temples: the Seven Pagodas, named for the vaguely pagoda-like style of Hindu temples in this part of India. Those temples, which according to myth are said to have once lined the shore, were so beautiful that the gods destroyed all but one - the so-called Shore Temple, a magnificently carved complex that is now considered a national treasure.
Some fishermen insist they saw more than the six vanished temples when the waters fell back. "There must have been at least 20," said Sunderasan, a young man, gesturing toward the sea. "We had no idea there were so many out there."
Archaeologists say excavations on shore and at sea were already under way before the tsunami struck, and that divers made promising finds of barnacle-encrusted blocks that appear man-made.
"From an archaeological perspective, maybe the tsunami was good. We found some new things," said one man, pointing to the exposed boulders. "But from a human perspective ..." he said, his words drifting into silence. Finally he added: "There was a lot of deaths, a lot of damage, a lot of destruction."
Tsunami throws up India relics BBC Story - February 2005
Sumatra Earthquake Three Times Larger Than Originally Thought Science Daily - February 2005
Scientists Determine Fault Near Tsunami Area Moving 10 Millimeters Per Year Science Daily
Tsunami Redraws Indian Ocean Maps National Geographic
Top World Tsunami Hotspots Detailed Discovery
Tsunami-Battered Sumatra Ripe for More Disaster National Geographic
Seated in one of the world's most geologically active regions,
Sumatra is ripe for more cataclysmic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Tsunami waves less than 20ins high in deep water Ananova
Tsunami redrew ship channels, ocean floor MSNBC
4 factors that create tsunamis Discovery
Satellites
Satellite Images Of Asian Disaster Science Daily
History
Tsunami in Southeast Asia: Full Coverage National Geographic
Tsunami 2004 - Krakatoa 1883 Discovery
Ecology
Tsunami's salt water may leave islands uninhabitable New Scientist
Andaman coral 'hit by tsunami' BBC
Tsunamis Leave Secrets in Beach Sediment Discovery
United States
Tsunamis More Likely to Hit U.S. Than Asia National Geographic
Tsunami Experience Prepares Alaska Town for Next One Reuters
Scientists weigh West Coast wave threat MSNBC
Sociology
Did Island Tribes Use Ancient Lore to Evade Tsunami? National Geographic
Tsunami Family Saved by Schoolgirl's Geography Lesson National Geographic
Tribe shoots arrows at aid flight BBC
Metaphysics
Ghosts stalk Thai tsunami survivors BBC
The Tsunami of 10, 900 B.C. Zecharia Sitchen
His wife dreamed of floods, he built on stilts, and they survived Tsunami
An enormous number of UFO sightings before Tsunami and earthquake in Southeast Asia India Daily
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