In 2004, if there had been a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean, better communications networks, and greater public understanding of tsunamis and how to appropriately respond to them, many tens of thousands of lives likely would have been saved. Coastal erosion and subsidence caused some shorelines to disappear into the ocean while, in some areas, uplift forced coral reefs to rise above its surface. Together, the earthquake and tsunami changed the landscape of many Indian Ocean coastal communities. And the inundation of saltwater damaged soils, vegetation, and crops. Waves and wave-carried debris devastated once-thriving communities, destroying homes, businesses, basic services, critical infrastructure, the environment, livelihoods, and entire economies. Indonesia was the hardest hit country, with over 167,000 lives lost and nearly $6 billion (2017 dollars) in damage. Total damage was estimated at roughly $13 billion (2017 dollars). An astonishing roughly quarter million people (227,899) were killed or missing and presumed dead, including tourists, making this the deadliest tsunami in history.Ībout 1.7 million people were displaced. The tsunami, not the earthquake, was responsible for most of the impacts, which were observed in 17 countries in Southeastern and Southern Asia and Eastern and Southern Africa. In some cases, where tsunami knowledge existed and was used, like in small island communities where stories about tsunamis had been passed down from generations before them, thousands of lives were saved. Unfortunately, these were not widely understood as warnings, and many witnesses to the event rushed to the water to explore the exposed ocean floor or continued with their daily activities. Natural tsunami warnings included the earthquake (close to its source), withdrawal of the sea, and unusually large but not damaging initial waves. So at the time of the event, there was little public awareness about tsunamis, and there was no official tsunami warning system. While deadly tsunamis had happened in the Indian Ocean region (5% of the tsunamis between 19 occurred in the Indian Ocean), the last major tsunami was in 1883.
The tsunami was also observed on over 100 coastal water-level stations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, making it a global tsunami. On the other side of the ocean, in Somalia, waves ranged in height from 11 to 31 feet (3.4 to 9.4 meters). In Indonesia's Aceh province in Northern Sumatra, waves reached 167 feet (51 meters) and caused flooding up to three miles (five kilometers) inland. Wave heights and inundation distances varied throughout the region based on location relative to the source earthquake as well as the depth of the ocean, the elevation of the coast, and other features of the land both above and below the ocean. Once generated, the tsunami radiated outward in all directions, striking the coasts of Indonesia and India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands within 20 minutes of the earthquake and the northeastern coast of Somalia in Africa seven hours later. The tsunami that followed had catastrophic impacts throughout the Indian Ocean. The earthquake caused severe damage and casualties in Indonesia (Northern Sumatra) and in India (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands). The shaking was felt not only in Indonesia, but also in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The length of the rupture was roughly 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), similar in length to California.
It occurred 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) below the ocean floor along a reverse fault in the Sunda trench where the Indian plate (part of the Indo-Australian plate) subducts beneath the Burma plate (a minor tectonic plate or microplate). The magnitude 9.1 earthquake was one for the record books and stands today as the third largest in the world since 1900. This tragic event raised awareness about the threat posed by tsunamis to coastal communities around the world and led to significant advances in tsunami detection, forecasting, warning, and preparedness. On December 26, 2004, an extremely powerful earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean generated a devastating tsunami.
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