Tsunami

September 9th, 2005

2004 - Indian Ocean tsunami
Animation of the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami from NOAA/PMEL Tsunami Research ProgramThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, that had a magnitude between 9.1 and 9.3, triggered a series of lethal tsunamis on December 26, 2004 that killed over 310,000 people (more than 220,000 in Indonesia alone), making it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. The tsunami killed people over an area ranging from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia, Thailand and the north-western coast of Malaysia to thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and even as far as Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa. The disaster prompted a huge worldwide effort to help victims of the tragedy, with hundreds of millions of dollars being raised for disaster relief.
Unlike in the Pacific Ocean, there is no organised alert service covering the Indian Ocean. This is in part due to the absence of major tsunami events between 1883 (the Krakatoa eruption, which killed 36,000 people) and 2004.

Entry Filed under: Tsunami