Changes in suspended sediments associated with 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

The Sumatra tsunami on 26 December, 2004 in the Indian Ocean was generated by one of the largest earthquakes of the past 100 years. The present study investigated spatial and temporal changes of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in North-East Indian Ocean (NEIO) after the Sumatra tsunami used satellite remote sensing data. The nLw551 products of MODIS-aqua data (using as indexing SSC) were analyzed for 5 years (2002–2006). Result shows SSC notably increased (55.6–200%) in large river estuaries along coast of the Bay of Bengal (BOB) in a short time (4 weeks) after the tsunami, especially the northwest coast of Indonesia, southeast coast of Myanmar, as well as the north offshore of BOB. Those increases were mainly caused by the re-suspension function induced by the initial surge of the tsunami. Monthly analysis indicates increases (4.26%) of SSC of the entire North-East Indian Ocean area in 2005; especially in November 2005 when increase of SSC increased by about 6.19% compared with other years; those may mainly be caused by the destruction of coastal vegetation and modifying of estuaries or wetlands by the 2004 tsunami. The increases of SSC have different mechanism in different region and period after the tsunami.