State of Banda Aceh beach before and after the tsunami

Abstract

The Great Sumatra Earthquake of December 26, 2004 and resulting tsunami largely devastated the coastal zone of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, because it was located so close to the epicenter. Sustainable management of the coastal zone of Banda Aceh in future requires knowledge about the impact of the tsunami on the coast of Banda Aceh and knowledge on the morphological development of the coastal zone since the tsunami. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to quantify the changes in coastline due to the tsunami and to determine the sediment composition before and after the tsunami. Changes in coastline were derived from satellite images and revealed that the coastline retreat is in the order of several hundred meters. Grain sizes of tsunami deposits, determined from samples taken five months after the tsunami, varied from 90 - 210 μm. This is within the range of grain sizes observed in the nearshore zone before the tsunami, indicating that the sediment composition did not change significantly due to the tsunami and that the source of tsunami deposits was probably the nearshore zone of the Banda Aceh coast. © 2007 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.