Wow.

January 7, 2005 12:53 PM

The before and after tsunami photos have been synced-up and they highlight even more (if that's possible) the power of the sea. Saomeone has geo-aligned the various before and after aerial and satellite photos and adjusted the scale to provide a very accurate then/now comparison.
posted by mmahaffie (41 comments total)

I realize that we've seen some of this before, but this is the best presentation of these images that I've seen.
posted by mmahaffie at 12:54 PM on January 7, 2005

Amazing what satellite photography and good presentation of information can do! Thanks!

To take advantage of the MeFi soapbox - the world's "who can give the most aid" contest has probably given enough to fund short-run relief these victims (eg, MSF's comment that they got all the money they could use). It's a good thing overall. But, try to remember all those victims of hunger, disease, and poverty worldwide who suffer every day without having amazing satellite pictures to back up their stories.
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 1:03 PM on January 7, 2005

I'd already seen these, but I couldn't ever get the images to line up. This really nails it, and shows the full, sobering effect of the tsunami. Some of those Aceh images look like the surface of the fuckin' moon.
posted by 40 Watt at 1:03 PM on January 7, 2005

Holy Shit!
posted by OmieWise at 1:05 PM on January 7, 2005

I was stunned before, now I think I'm in shock.
posted by 31d1 at 1:06 PM on January 7, 2005

Whoa, there's a boat just offshore in this one.
posted by dhoyt at 1:11 PM on January 7, 2005

fuck
posted by mudpuppie at 1:15 PM on January 7, 2005

Were all of the trees washed away in the later pics?
posted by bmxGirl at 1:17 PM on January 7, 2005

Keeeerist
posted by RockCorpse at 1:21 PM on January 7, 2005

Wow.
posted by me3dia at 1:21 PM on January 7, 2005

I'd lined a few of them up myself before, but those pictures from Aceh.... well, the words escape me.
posted by Swifty at 1:30 PM on January 7, 2005

The twelfth one is insane.
posted by knave at 1:33 PM on January 7, 2005

I never imagined that even the trees were washed away.
posted by tayknight at 1:35 PM on January 7, 2005

.
posted by adzm at 1:37 PM on January 7, 2005

Next time I'm at the beach and a wave pantses me, I'll thank my lucky stars. These are some seriously sobering pics.
posted by pmbuko at 1:46 PM on January 7, 2005

good lord.
posted by blendor at 1:48 PM on January 7, 2005

Looks like the ocean spilled a lot of water onto the land. In the pictures with the sea water further out from the shore line, is it low tide? Or is that the coast line now.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:11 PM on January 7, 2005

I've heard some claims that that picture shows the retreating water moments before the tsunami hit. Doesn't sound very likely to me, though, timing-wise.
posted by Harry at 2:17 PM on January 7, 2005

oh.lord.
posted by mrs.pants at 2:30 PM on January 7, 2005

Here another one.

My guess; the water's depth near shore is shallower, then further off land it has become deeper in areas. The reason for the water looking receded, if not low tide. This would have been caused by the tsunami pushing soil towards land leaving an empty space for more water to fill in.

Wonder if the soil near the coast will improve like The Nile overflowing it’s banks once a year.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:33 PM on January 7, 2005

Check out the boat that shows up in the center of pic 11. At least that's what it looks like to me.
posted by liquid54 at 2:38 PM on January 7, 2005

It would be interesting to know when the "Before" photos were taken. There seems to be quite a bit of urban development in some of the "After" pictures, particuarly in the first once. Although I suppose that the trees were possibly knocked around enough to expose extra buildings.
posted by o0o0o at 2:41 PM on January 7, 2005

Jesus, some of these look like the arials from Hiroshima. I figured small sheds and stuff, but I had no idea entire islands would literally be erased.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:57 PM on January 7, 2005

Wonder if the soil near the coast will improve like The Nile overflowing it’s banks once a year.

No, thoncatspike, it'll be a lot worse. A lot/all of the topsoil was washed into the ocean with that, and the ground soaked with salty water. That's pretty much as bad as it could get. The Nile has good nutrient-rich silt in it, which is why it helps the soil when it floods.

As for the shoreline, there was undoubtedly a good amount of slosh in the Indian Ocean as a result of the tsunami, mimicking a tide. That's probably the main reason for the change in shoreline position.
posted by jimmythefish at 3:03 PM on January 7, 2005

o0o0o: It would be interesting to know when the "Before" photos were taken. There seems to be quite a bit of urban development in some of the "After" pictures, particuarly in the first once. Although I suppose that the trees were possibly knocked around enough to expose extra buildings.


According to DigitalGlobe's website the before images were taken in April and June of 2004. They also updated a few more images that weren't there when I posted this last. This new site really adds to the impact!
posted by OpinioNate at 3:14 PM on January 7, 2005

What confused me at first is that the button says "After" when the "After" image is showing. Clicking it actually produces the "Before" picture, and causes its label to change to "Before". This is the reverse of the behavior I was expecting, and it confused me a bit on the first few images.
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:25 PM on January 7, 2005

I would like to see these in a flash app with a circular mask that you can move around to see the differences, if that makes any sense.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 3:45 PM on January 7, 2005

makes total sense. Sorta like a time-distorting flashlight beam.
posted by pmbuko at 4:00 PM on January 7, 2005

I click on the before button to get the after image. Bizzaro!
posted by skallas at 5:09 PM on January 7, 2005

One interesting thing to note - in the 11th image near the middle is a blue object that looks like a building with vents on the roof. It's actually the ferry boat from image 6 (in the little bay at the right of the image).
posted by OpinioNate at 5:41 PM on January 7, 2005

Oh, blimey: wish I'd thought to post. I've been doing exactly this, for my own interest, with the DigitalGlobe images and the Matlab image processing toolbox, and it didn't occur to me that anyone else would be interested.
posted by raygirvan at 5:58 PM on January 7, 2005

Uh...just...*speechless*
posted by Stunt at 6:25 PM on January 7, 2005

Note to Thomcatspike...

The "low tide" shots, if i understand it correctly, have caught the part in the process where the approaching tsunami wave troughs before the cresting peak smashes into shore. I am astounded that the satellite imaging appears to have captured that process, because I understand it happens quite quickly.

There's a very good description of a similar event in a book called Isaac's Storm, about the 1900 Gulf of Mexico hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas. Survivor reports describe an apparent emptying of the Gulf from the perspective of a watcher on the shore as the trough sucked the water level down and away from the shore. The following surge was enormous and catastrophic.
posted by Mike D at 7:24 PM on January 7, 2005

That really shows how strong it was. Damn.
posted by cmyk at 7:25 PM on January 7, 2005

" makes total sense. Sorta like a time-distorting flashlight beam."

That would be so awesome to have in real life.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 7:47 PM on January 7, 2005

Unbelievable. The power of water -- unstoppable.

Semi-related: the pictures shot from satellites -- ain't technology just incredible? The whole world now knows what the effects of a tsunami are...thanks to the satellite images.
posted by davidmsc at 9:55 PM on January 7, 2005

I was reading these comments, looking at the first few pictures (of Kalutara Beach in Sri Lanka) and thinking "Boy, these people are seeing something I don't" because something looked different, but I just couldn't grasp what it was that looked different.

Then I hit #5, the first of Banda Aceh. Yeah, wow.

"ain't technology just incredible? The whole world now knows what the effects of a tsunami are...thanks to the satellite images"

ObDisturbingThought: How long will it be before the first tsunami-deniers (fellow travelers of the Holocaust deniers) pop up?
posted by kcds at 10:24 PM on January 7, 2005

Thanks. That really...I don't know, it really made it...comprehensible, in as much as it can be. God. It looks like...a warzone.
posted by stray at 1:04 AM on January 8, 2005

On Weekend Edition Saturday this morning, a Paul Landgraver read the email he had sent from California after surviving the tidal wave in Thailand--it is the most harrowing thing I've heard.

On Science Friday on Talk of the Nation, one guest said this may be it for some endangered species of sea turtles because of the tsunami. Their numbers were few to begin with, and though most probably survived the wave if they were out to sea, their nesting beaches have been washed away.
posted by y2karl at 9:40 AM on January 8, 2005

I "knew" the devastation was horrible; now I really know. Stunning, simply stunning.
posted by deborah at 4:28 PM on January 8, 2005

Note to Thomcatspike...
Thanks Mike D
posted by thomcatspike at 5:18 AM on January 13, 2005