Twenty Years After the Devastating Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
Twenty years ago, on December 26, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake triggered massive tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. The disaster was one of the deadliest in modern recorded history, claiming the lives of an estimated 230,000 people and affecting millions.
The earthquake struck off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering waves that slammed into the coasts of 14 countries, including Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Seychelles, and Somalia. The scale of the tragedy was exacerbated by the lack of an early warning system and minimal sea-level data, leaving seismologists scrambling to determine the earthquake’s magnitude and predict where the waves would hit.
Many people were left without warning, and little time to escape. Others had no idea what was happening as the ocean withdrew, exposing the seafloor – a natural warning sign of a possible tsunami approaching. Indonesia’s Aceh province was the worst hit, with an estimated 130,700 people killed and 565,384 internally displaced, while 199,766 houses were destroyed or damaged.
Two decades later, the horror of the tsunami still endures, with communities that have since rebuilt and families who lost loved ones still bearing the scars. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has called the tragedy a “wake-up call” and has since ramped up investment in tsunami science and the deployment of buoys used in tsunami monitoring systems to detect seismic events quicker and more accurately.
