1. Tsunamis are created by strong seaquakes or volcano erruptions and occur mostly in the Pacific.
2. The initially flat waves reach speeds up to 1000 km/h, become slower but constantly higher.
3. Then in shallow coastal waters this can result in a huge wave of up to 30m high.
Tsunami/Wave travel time:
Malaysia: 1 hr
Thailand: 1 hr
Sri Lanka: 1.5 hrs
Tsunami escape time after seaquake: avg. 20 min - 2 hrs. (according to experts)
None of the ten affected conutries had installed an early warning system.
Even without early warning systems thousands could have been saved.
There were no central contact centres in the countries to receive warnings of seaquake.
After the seaquake Honolulu warning centre assumed contacts with US and Australian counterparts but
none of the Tsunami threatened Asian countries because "we didn't have any contact details of anyone in
this part of the world".
(http://www.stern.de/politik/panorama/index.html?eid=534259&id=534279&nv=ex_L3_ct)
