Lhoknga

Coordinates: 5°28′42″N 95°14′39″E / 5.47833°N 95.24417°E

Lhoknga Lhôk Nga
Lhoknga Location in Sumatra
Coordinates: 5°28′42″N 95°14′39″E / 5.47833°N 95.24417°E
Country	Indonesia
Province	Aceh
Population (2006)
• Total	400
Time zone	WIB (UTC+7)

Lhoknga, (pronunciation "lhoʔ-ŋa", alternative names Lho'nga, Lho-nga, Lhok Nga), is a town within the district of the same name, in Aceh Besar Regency, Aceh Special Region, Indonesia, located on the western side of the island of Sumatra, 13 km southwest of Banda Aceh. It was completely flattened and destroyed by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, where its population dwindled from 7,500 to 400.^[1] Tsunami runups following eyewitness accounts of waves were recorded being 35 m in height (waves hitting land at the height of 35 m),^[2] the highest known tsunami wave known to date. Such high and fast waves arising from the epicentre by megathrusts were later found to be due to splay faults, secondary faults arising due to cracking of the sea floor to jut upwards in seconds, causing waves' speed and height to increase.^[3]

Notes and references

1. "Eureka Street: Looking back moving forward". Retrieved 2009-05-16.
2. Wilkinson, F. "Coastal design and tsunami mitigation for shelter/house reconstruction on the west coast Aceh." International Symposium Disaster Reduction on Coasts, Monash University, November 14–16, 2005.
3. Sibuet, J-C., Rangin, C., Le Pichon, X., Singh, S., Cattaneo, A., Graindorge, D., Klingelhoefer, F., Lin, J-Y., Malod, J., Maury, T., Schneider, J-L., Sultan, N., Umber, M., Yamaguchi, H., and the “Sumatra aftershocks” team, "26th December 2004 great Sumatra–Andaman earthquake: Co-seismic and post-seismic motions in northern Sumatra." Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Vol. 263, Issues. 1-2, 88-103. November 15, 2007.