The U.S. Tsunami Relief Effort 2005: Going the Distance

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Americans Respond to Tragedy

U.S. Private-Sector Support for Tsunami Relief

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Going the Distance: The U.S. Tsunami Relief Effort 2005

These two charts show estimates of how much the earth's surface moved as a result of the earthquake. (White-bordered box is 450 Km by 180 Km.) On the left is vertical displacement, or uplift. Positive values (red, yellow, and green) show areas that rose during the earthquake and negative values (blue) show regions that dropped. The maximum rise, along the subduction zone where the Burma (tectonic) Plate is moving over the India Plate, was over five meters (16 feet). The greatest horizontal motion of the sea floor (right) was 11 meters (36 feet). (Image courtesy Chen Ji, California Institute of Technology)