Scientific Background on the Indian Ocean

Earthquake and Tsunami

An earth-quake that measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale of the
West Coast on Northern Sumatra set off a series of other
earthquakes lasting 12 hours on the 26th of December (from
00:58 to 11:05 UTC), 2004 led to widespread catastrophe
particularly in Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Indonesia and Thailand
with damage also in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Somalia and
Seychelles