This article commemorates the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, reflecting on its devastating impact and the indelible mark it left on the world.
On Dec. 26, 2004, the world witnessed what has become known as the Boxing Day or Indian Ocean Tsunami , a natural disaster of such appalling magnitude that even now, two decades later, it boggles the imagination. We feel it is appropriate to take a moment from our holiday festivities to remember the tragedy and its thousands of victims, not only for their sake but, in a sense, also our own.
For those of us who remember the event as it unfolded, it seems somewhat incredible that an entire generation has been born and reached adulthood after it happened, so vivid is the memory of it. It is one thing to learn of such a horrible historic event from reading or hearing the stories of those who were caught up in it, but it is quite another to witness it in real-time.Even in the dry language of science, the description of the calamity is almost too incredible to be believed. At approximately 8 a.m. (9 a.m. in Manila) on Dec. 26, 2004 — coincidentally, it was also a Thursday that year — an earthquake with a magnitude of between M9.2 and M9.3 ('M' stands for moment) struck the fault zone between the Burma and India tectonic plates, beneath the seafloor just west of Aceh province at the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The earthquake, which lasted for more than 10 minutes, was the second- or third-most powerful temblor measured since modern recording methods began in 1900, after the Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 and the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960. It was also the most powerful ever recorded in Asia and the most powerful recorded anywhere in the world in the 21st century so far. It was so strong that it caused the entire Earth to wobble by as much as 10 millimeters for several hours, and it caused smaller, secondary earthquakes as far away as Alaska.The quake itself devastated Aceh and neighboring provinces, but that was almost inconsequential compared to what happened nex
Tsunami Boxing Day Tsunami Indian Ocean Tsunami Earthquake Sumatra
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