Introduction

On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake with a magnitude measured at around 9.2 occurred beneath the Indian Ocean. It occurred off the West Coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. This undersea earthquake caused a tsunami impacting all the coasts that are along the Indian Ocean. The earthquake was caused by the subduction of plates, which set off several tsunamis along the coasts of landmasses surrounding the Ocean. Waves 30m high devastated the coasts of 14 different countries, killing over 230,000 people. The 2004 tsunami is known as one of the most deadly natural disasters ever recorded.

Banda Aceh was arguably the hardest hit area. Projected damage costs were targeted at $4.4 Billion and “the loss of a generation." 700,000 people were homeless and farmers, fisherman, and small businesses were completely destroyed leaving people with no source of income and thus, the inability to rebuild. What has been since deemed the biggest story of the disaster is not the economic damage to the country, but the destruction of citizens’ lives and their inability to recover with no plan on how or where to start. Almost every source of agriculture within 3 miles of the ocean was destroyed due to flooding, livestock were killed, and everything poisoned. Even today, six years after the tsunami, some of the land is still infertile. Estimates say that $675million in environmental damage was incurred to the Banda Aceh region alone. The highest most expensive portion of the damage at $1.4billion were to housing and shelter within the region including the destruction of small businesses.

Essentially, our project looks along the northern coastal city Banda Aceh, Indonesia. We will be using a variety of satellite images from before, immediately after, and five years after the tsunami hit. Our images will portray the dramatic changes to the city and coastline after the disaster.