Coral poaching worsens tsunami destruction in Sri Lanka

Observations of the trail of destruction of the Sumatra tsunami of 26 December 2004 indicate remarkable, small‐scale spatial variations, of the order of a few kilometers, of water inundation and destruction in southwestern Sri Lanka [ Shiermeier , 2005; Liu et al. , 2005] that are much smaller than the tsunami wavelength of ∼100 km. For example, the town of Peraliya, was awash with an approximately 1.5‐km water inundation from a wave of 10 m in height; the inundation there carried the passenger train Samudra Devi (the “Ocean Queen”) inland some 50 m, killing 1700 people. Yet,∼3 km south, in Hikkaduwa, there was a mere 2–3 m wave height, 50‐m inundation and no deaths.