ABSTRACT
The east coast of India is more prone to natural hazards like cyclones, storm surges, and, in recent times, a new hazard in the form of tsunami. A tsunami, on the other hand, has nothing to do with atmospheric disturbances. Tsunamis were recorded during 1881, 1883, 1941, 1945, and 2004 along the coast of India (Chadha et al. 2005). The December 26, 2004, tsunami was the most disastrous and caused heavy loss of life and property. The tsunami triggered due to undersea mega thrust earthquake that occurred with an epicenter at N 3.7° and E 90° with a magnitude of MW 9.3, near the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and is referred to as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake (Lay et al. 2005). The devastating tsunami killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. This second largest tsunami
CONTENTS
17.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 317 17.2 Region of Study, Nagapattinam District ............................................ 318 17.3 Geomorphological Mapping ............................................................... 320
17.3.1 Pre-Tsunami Geomorphological Mapping ............................ 320 17.3.2 Field Survey and Mapping after Tsunami ............................ 323
17.3.2.1 Determination of Land Elevation ............................ 323 17.3.2.2 Determination of Tsunami Run-Up Heights ......... 325 17.3.2.3 Contour Mapping ....................................................... 325
17.4 Results and Discussion ........................................................................ 327 17.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 330 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... 331 References ........................................................................................................ 332
had an impact of sudden changes in the geomorphology and geomorphological processes along the east coast of Tamil Nadu, India. This has resulted in transformation in the coastal landforms and quality of life as well. The catastrophic event has eroded the beach, foreshore, and backshore areas and completely generated new outlook in the coastal geomorphology, thereby resulting in the need of new sets of coastal management practices. Many coastal morphological changes have occurred all over the world in response to the December 26, 2004, tsunami (Ella et al. 2006). Nagapattinam district in the east coast of India, located in Tamil Nadu state, is one of the areas that was severely affected by the 2004 tsunami waves (Ramasamy et al. 2005). The severity of damage varies depending on the location of the villages, altitude above mean sea level (MSL), presence of sand dunes, and the distance from the coast.
