2004 Indian Ocean earthquake – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Current event This article or section is about a current event. Information may change rapidly.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake of moment magnitude 9.0 that struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok). It was the largest earthquake in the world since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska, USA, in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. Thousands were killed by the resulting tsunamis, which were as high as 10 m (approx. 33 ft) in some locations and struck within three hours of the quake.

The multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating regions including the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, the Indonesian province of Aceh, the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, coastal areas of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and even as far away as Somalia, 4,100 km west of the epicenter.

Slashdot | Quake and Tsunami Devastate South Asia
pfb writes “From reuters, ‘The world’s fifth-largest quake in a century has hit southern Asia, triggering a speeding tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India, drowning hundreds, and swamping tourist islands in Thailand and the Maldives.'”