I'm trying to figure out how Somalia was devastated and Diego Garcia was unaffected.
Deigo Garcia is surrounded by deep water. The tsunami just passes around it.
The knowledge I've gotten over the last few days should explain that.
The tsunami works just like any other wave only much faster and with a larger volume of water involved. As the tsunami is traveling through deep, open ocean the height is only a few feet. It is not until the depth of water decreases that the wave is resisted and begins to compress. As it compresses the wave increases in height and slows down until it breaks on shore.
I understand that Diego Garcia does not have a large mass of land around it underwater to resist the wave as it approaches so the wave does not compress very much. This allows the wave to pass on by with little or no notice that it was ever there.
It is only when you have a large land mass like a continent in the way that the water depth changes slowly enough to make the wave compact and turn into a wall.