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Indian fishing villages were devastated by the 26 December tsunami

Informatics Division, MSSRF, Chennai

India's National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation identified the epicentre of last month's earthquake and mapped the likely path of the resulting tsunami in 1997, says its director G. N. Saha.

Saha says, however, that the organisation's Indian Natural Hazard Map did not make any prediction of the likelihood of an earthquake but simply showed a theoretical possibility. It showed the threat to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the southern coast of India posed by a high intensity earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

The 26 December 2004 earthquake is reported to have changed coastal and island geography in the region affected (see Indonesian earthquake has shifted islands). According to Saha, the Indian National Institute of Oceanography, the Survey of India and the Indian Navy are attempting to verify these reports with ground surveys.

Link to full Central Chronicle news story

Link to SciDev.Net's news focus 'Tsunami update'