by Kevin Caruso
The December 26, 2004 tsunami was caused by an undersea earthquake that occurred at 7:58 a.m. local time.
The earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean off the northwestern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0, making it the largest since a 9.2
earthquake hit off the coast of Alaska in 1964.
The quake created a large tsunami which caused tremendous devastation
in several countries and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
The hardest hit area was the Aceh Province of Suamtra, in northern Indonesia, which was the closest area to the quake.
Sri Lanka, South India and Thailand were also hit very hard by the tsunami; but many other countries were affected by the tsunami.
The countries most affected by the tsunami are listed below (in alphabetical order):
- Bangladesh
- India
- Indonesia
- Kenya
- Malaysia
- Madagascar
- Maldives
- Myanmar
- Seychelles
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Sri Lanka
- Tanzania
- Thailand
And the tsunami wave, which traveled at about 500 miles per hour, even reached the eastern coast of Africa, which was almost 3,000 miles away from the epicenter.
Please click below for a map of the 2004 Asian Tsunami:
Tsunami Map - 2004 Asian Tsunami
Please click below for information on tsunami deaths per country:
Tsunami Deaths - 2004 Asian Tsunami