How Sri Lanka protects Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh from ocean fury

Sri Lanka, positioned to the south of India, acts as a pure land barrier and performs an important position in shielding the southeastern coast of the nation from the doubtless harmful impacts of long-period swell waves generated within the Southern Ocean, in line with scientists on the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

These highly effective waves, able to travelling 1000’s of kilometers with minimal power loss, have ceaselessly brought on coastal flooding and erosion alongside the southwestern shoreline, notably in Kerala. However, the japanese coast, particularly areas north of Sri Lanka comparable to Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh, stays largely unaffected.

This is even supposing these swells additionally propagate into the Bay of Bengal, although they don’t seem to be predominant alongside the southeastern coast of India. To examine this phenomenon, researchers used real-time information from wave rider buoys deployed off Kollam on the west coast and Pondicherry on the east coast, together with high-resolution simulations utilizing the ‘WAVEWATCH III’ mannequin.

The outcomes revealed that greater than 96% of long-period swell occasions noticed at Kollam failed to achieve Pondicherry. But, when the Sri Lankan landmass was hypothetically faraway from the mannequin, the swells reached and impacted the beforehand protected japanese coast, confirming the landmass’s very important position as a swell protect.

This research has vital implications within the context of worldwide sea stage rise and local weather change. Even minor alterations in coastal geography, comparable to land submergence as a consequence of rising seas, may shift wave propagation paths and expose new areas to marine hazards, the scientists mentioned.

Focused experiments demonstrated that the Sri Lankan Land Mass (SLLM), located within the southeastern a part of the Indian peninsula, actively blocks long-period swell waves from the Southern Ocean from reaching India’s southeast coast.

“Our evaluation exhibits that within the absence of the SLLM, harmful Southern Ocean swells can attain the Indian southeast coast, together with areas north of Sri Lanka as much as mid-Andhra Pradesh,” mentioned INCOIS director T.M.Balakrishnan Nair.

Mr. Nair, who can be a co-author of the research, emphasised that these findings spotlight the significance of recognising and incorporating pure geographic options like islands and landmasses into coastal hazard assessments and early warning programs, particularly in a warming world.

Other scientists concerned within the research embrace Ok.G.Sandhya, R.Harikumar, P.A.Francis, and Balaji Baduru. The Department of Marine Geology at Mangalore University and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, additionally contributed to the analysis. The analysis paper was printed within the Journal of Earth System Science.