2004 Indian Ocean earthquake - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

### From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, also called the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was a great underwater earthquake. It happened at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) December 26, 2004. The epicentre of the earthquake was off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. At first, the earthquake was measured as a 9.0 on the Richter scale. Later, scientists said it was as high as a 9.3. Only the Great Chilean Earthquake has been more powerful. The earthquake also was the longest ever recorded. It lasted between 500(8.3 minutes) and 600(10 minutes) seconds. It was so powerful that it caused the entire Earth to vibrate. It started other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

## [edit] The Asian Tsunami

The large movement of earth under the water causes a very large and powerful tsunami. The tsunami was called the Asian Tsunami in most of the world. It was called the Boxing Day Tsunami in England, Australia, South Africa and Canada because it happened on the holiday they call Boxing Day. The tsunami caused a lot of damage to countries such as Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Waves as high as 30m (100ft) killed many people and damaged or destroyed a lot of buildings and other property. Over 225,000 people died or were not found after the Tsunami. The wave traveled as far away as South Africa (8000km {5000mi}) where as many as 8 people died because of high water caused by the wave. Because of how much damage was caused and the number of people the earthquake affected, over $7 billion (USD) was donated to help the survivors and rebuild the areas damaged.

## [edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake

### [edit] News collections

- BBC News - In-Depth Report: Tsunami Disaster
- Channel News Asia - One Year On, Memorial & Updates to the Asian Tsunami Disaster
- CNN - Tsunami, One Year After
- Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster
- New York Times
- Sydney Morning Herald - Waves of Devastation

### [edit] Photos and video

- Yahoo! Slideshows — Asian Tsunami Disaster
- Satellite images of tsunami-affected areas (National University of Singapore)
- Tsunamis.com - 2004 Asian Tsunami Pictures
- After the Tsunami Danish writer and photographer Thorsten Overgaard's documentary on the relief work after the December 26, 2004 tsunami.

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Category: Disasters

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