One of the Biggest Tsunami in Modern History

The earthquake that generated the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 7:59 am local time on Sunday, 26 December 2004. It was caused by subduction with an epicenter off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami is given various names, including the "Boxing Day tsunami".

With a magnitude of Mw 9.1-9.3, it is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. The earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake is estimated to have released the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.