Powerful Tsunami's Impact on Coral Reefs Was Hit and Miss

摘要

Early surveys suggest that coral reefs around the Indian Ocean survived December's tsunami in better shape than many had feared. In the sites where researchers have looked, "only a few areas were severely damaged, and the rest should recover rapidly in the next 5 to 10 years," says Clive Wilkinson, a marine scientist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Cape Ferguson. In some places, divers are already helping that recovery with restoration efforts. In the immediate aftermath of the 26 December tsunami, Wilkinson and others feared the worst. The wave's awesome power, as well as sediment, pollutants, and debris washed onto the reefs when the wave retreated, posed major threats, says Russell Brainard, a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer based in Honolulu. If eroded mud and silt buried a reef, they could destroy the corals.