2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami: 19 years since devastating Boxing Day tsunami
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December 2004 earthquake and tsunami: Exactly 19 years have passed since one of the mightiest natural disasters that the world has ever seen, and here’s how everything unfolded that day and the aftermath.
On the morning of 26 December 2004, exactly 19 years ago, a mega earthquake hit northern Sumatra in Indonesia, triggering one of the largest tsunamis in the world. The epicentre of the earthquake was the off-west coast of northern Sumatra islands and the tsunami also wreaked havoc in India.
The megathrust earthquake of 9.1-9.3 magnitude on the Richter scale prompted a massive tsunami near the Indian Ocean. The waves, as high as 30 m (100 ft), devastated inhabitants along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries and displacing thousands. It was reportedly the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Asia and also the most powerful earthquake in the 21st century.
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It has been 19 years since one of the mightiest natural disasters the world has ever seen, here’s how everything unfolded that day and the aftermath:
26 December 2004, Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami: How everything unfolded
In 2004, on the morning of Boxing Day (a day after Christmas) on December 26 at around 7:58 am local time, a major earthquake with a 9.1-9.3 magnitude struck the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia.
As per the scientific community, the earthquake was caused by a rupture along the fault between the Burma Plate and the Indian Plate. The earthquake was so intense that it reached a Mercalli intensity of up to IX in some areas. It had the longest duration of faulting ever observed- between eight to ten minutes.
Soon the earthquake triggered one of the biggest tsunamis, causing direct disruptions to people in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand (apart from Indonesia). Banda Aceh in Indonesia reported the largest number of deaths. Splay faults, or secondary "pop-up faults", caused long, narrow parts of the seafloor to pop up in seconds. This quickly elevated the height and increased the speed of waves, destroying the nearby Indonesian town of Lhoknga.
19 Years Ago on this day the Tsunami 🌊 hit Sri Lanka 🇱🇰. Over 35,000 lifes lost.
— Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) December 26, 2023
Let us remember all the 2004 Tsunami victims🙏
pic.twitter.com/Y1p5rq97o3
Many reports even say that the earthquake was so mighty that it caused the planet to vibrate as much as 10 m (0.4 in) and also remotely triggered earthquakes as far away as Alaska.
In India, as per official estimates, more than 10,700 people died, 5,640 went missing and another thousand became homeless due to the tsunami.
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The Great Nicobar and Car Nicobar Islands were the worst hit among all the islands because of their proximity to the quake and relatively flat terrain. Aftershocks rocked the area, and one-fifth of the population of the Nicobar Islands was reported dead, injured or missing.
The damage done to the number of people and countries prompted a worldwide humanitarian response, with donations worth more than $14 billion in that year. Since then, India and other countries along the Indian Ocean belt worked on advancing their security systems to respond swiftly to any such warning in future.
(With inputs from agencies)
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