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A magnitude 8.9 undersea earthquake struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok). It was the strongest earthquake in the world since the Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska in 1964, and the fifth largest since 1900. More than 2000 deaths were caused by resulting tsunamis.
Tsunamis
The earthquake triggered massive tsunamis (popularly known as "tidal waves"), which struck the coasts of the Indian Ocean. However Pacific Ocean coasts were not affected.
Damage and casualties from tsunamis and flooding have been reported from:
- Sri Lanka - 1000 killed.
- India - 1000 killed in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
- Andaman Islands - 100 killed
- Indonesia - 150 killed in Sumatra
- Thailand - 60 killed. 100 tourists missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit.
- the Maldives - two thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded. Outlying low-level atolls may be badly affected.
- Cocos Island
Quake characteristics
The epicenter of the quake was underwater, at a depth of about 10 km.
The quake itself was felt as far away as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand.
The earthquake was unusually large in geographical extent, in that over 1000 km of faultline broke. It was initially reported at magnitude 8.5 but soon upgraded to 8.9. The largest recorded earthquake was the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960, at magnitude 9.5.
See also
External links
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4125481.stm
- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aGlkf7Q9bYkA&refer=top_world_news
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7178999
- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11785540%255E401,00.html
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1272425.htm
- http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/asia.quake/