On December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
It caused the seabed to rise, displacing huge amounts of water. The tsunami that struck the coasts of the Indian Ocean was one of the deadliest disasters in all recorded history. It killed over 225,000 people in 11 countries. Waves 100 feet high washed over entire coastal communities. With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, this earthquake was the second largest ever recorded. The energy released on the Earth’s surface was over 1,500 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. It also lasted longer than any previous quake—between eight and ten minutes. It was so strong that it caused other earthquakes, some as far away as Alaska.
