WASHINGTON, 8 January 2005 — Among the many rumors circulating following the tsunami disaster is that the US military base on the remote atoll of Diego Garcia was submerged as the deadly tsunami raced across the Indian Ocean.
Diego Garcia is a horseshoe-shaped island about 39 miles long, surrounded by coral reefs on all sides. Its highest point is only 22 feet above sea level.
But the Navy command says it support facility located near the center of the Indian Ocean was spared any damage from the Dec. 26 devastating ocean surges.
Officials said the Diego Garcia Navy Support Facility, which is used as an air and naval refueling station and is home to about 1,700 military personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors, suffered no damage related to the earthquake and ensuing tsunamis.
Pacific Fleet officials in Honolulu said the Dec. 26 earthquake or the tsunami it caused did not affect Navy facilities and operations on the tiny British-governed atoll.
Diego Garcia, the southernmost island in the Chagos Archipelago, sits about 1,000 miles south of India and roughly 2,000 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 quake that caused the tsunami.
Questions arose after Somalia, whose coast is nearly 3,000 from the earthquake’s center, reported several hundred deaths in coastal areas as a result of tidal waves.
What appears to have saved Diego Garcia from damage is the structure of the atoll.
It has a deep, sheltered harbor to accommodate submarines and warships and a 2 1/4-mile long runway.
The atoll is in the Chagos Archipelago west of the Chagos Trench, a 400-mile-long underwater canyon that runs north and south and plunges to depths of more than 15,000 feet in some areas. The trench is one of the deepest regions of the Indian Ocean.
“The depth of the Chagos Trench and grade to the shores does not allow for tsunamis to build before passing the atoll,” the Navy said. “The result of the earthquake was seen as a tidal surge estimated at 6 feet.”
Carolyn Bell, a spokeswoman for the US Geological Survey, told journalists that an earthquake radiates destructive waves in all directions, but the damage caused by the water differs greatly depending on the undersea topography.
She speculated that the numerous coral reefs might have dissipated some of the waves’ impact on the British-owned island, resulting in only a slightly higher tide that residents might not necessarily notice.
Ships stationed at the base have been sent to Southeast Asia to help the relief effort, and six Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft are flying reconnaissance “coastal damage surveys” from the Diego Garcia base over some of the areas believed to have suffered the worst damage.
