Signs of Ancient Tsunami

Signs of Ancient Tsunami

I chose this article because I thought it would be relevant do to the recent troubled weather. The setting for this article is Mahabalipuram, a port town located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. The article reports that researchers may have found ancient ruins left over from a Hindu temple between the 2nd Century B.C and the 1st Century A.D. After excavating the site archeologists have come to the conclusion that the temple may have been destroyed by a tsunami. "The archeologists are trying to determine the date of the tsunami from the sand and seashells found at the brick temple, dedicated to Lord Muruga, a Hindu god."

The evidence to support their theory is simple; there was more damage on the side of the temple facing the sea. Although this may seem like it would be a good sign of a tsunami, I don't think that the evidence is very conclusive. This temple was built under another temple. This may also suggest that they fled the area, and when they returned they rebuilt a new Hindu temple on top of the previous one.

In conclusion I found this article to be very interesting for several reasons. It shows that mankind has been dealing with natural disasters for thousands of years, and although we have greatly increased are chances of survival we can still improve on what we already know today by studying these ancient ruins. Also, if we can find some kind of pattern to all of this weather, it may help us to predict storms like this in the future.

Link to article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509220175sep22,1,2244276.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true