For ten minutes, the entire planet shook violently, sending seismic waves over itself that changed the world for the worse.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, caused by the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded, countless images of piled-up dead bodies, partially rotten from their time, floating in the blackened seawater, splashed into newspapers from distant lands and led the evening news around the world.
While much of the world was safe from one of history’s deadliest natural disasters, much of Asia, where 180,000 confirmed deaths occurred, is still reeling from its effects to this day.
The epicenter of the earthquake that caused the tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in history, was just 160 kilometers off the coast of Indonesia. The massive Indian plate slid about 15 meters beneath the Burma plate at 8 a.m. local time on December 26, 2004. In two phases, just 100 seconds apart, the fault traveled across the Earth at a speed of 10,000 kilometers per hour, starting off the coast of Indonesia, and traveling along the fault line between the two plates towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 9.25, making it the third most powerful earthquake on record, displaced more than 11 cubic kilometers of water within minutes, causing the tsunami. Violent, deadly waves nearly 100 feet high radiated outward from the epicenter. At its fastest speed, in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean, it reached speeds of up to 1,000 km/h.
When the waves reached the coasts of more than a dozen countries on two continents, the shallow coastal waters greatly slowed the waves but formed destructive waves in the process. By one estimate, these waves carried twice as much energy as all the explosives used during World War II, including the two atomic bombs.
The Indonesian population watched in horror as the ‘black giant’ plunged through the city of Banda Aceh. More than 130,000 people died here, which accounts for the vast majority of deaths caused by the tsunami.
Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, Maldives, Malaysia, Tanzania, Seychelles, Bangladesh, South Africa, Yemen, Kenya and Madagascar were also affected. Twenty years later, the scars of the disaster remain deep in the minds of the citizens of each of these countries.
You see Karin Svard, a policewoman from Sweden, running into the sea after her husband, three sons and brother. It later turned out that they all miraculously survived
Tidal waves from the Boxing Day tsunami wash through homes in Maddampegama, about 60 kilometers south of Colombo, Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka alone, more than 35,000 people died in the tsunami
A photo of the Boxing Day tsunami ripping through Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand
This photo taken on December 26, 2004 shows people fleeing as a tsunami makes landfall at Koh Raya, Thailand
This photo of an Indian woman mourning the death of a relative killed in the Boxing Day tsunami won first prize in the World Press Photo competition that same year
A mother and her children walked past rubble left on a street in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, days after the tsunami hit
Satellite images show the devastation caused by the Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka
The crew of a US Navy Seahawk helicopter from aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln observes the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami on January 8, 2005, Aceh, Indonesia
An aerial view of the city of Banda Aceh, damaged by the earthquake-induced tsunami, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, January 24, 2005
Displaced Indonesians struggle for relief food delivered by a US military helicopter at a UN refugee camp south of Panga in Aceh province, Sumatra island on Thursday, January 20, 2005
Aceh residents seen wading through flooded street to higher ground shortly after tsunami attack in provincial capital Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Refugee children try to catch aid dropped from an Australian military helicopter into a rice field in Lampaya, on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, January 17, 2005
Tsunami refugees receive supplies distributed by the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group in Kouati Sounam, about 90 kilometers south of Banda Aceh, on January 3, 2005.
The wreckage of an excavator amid rubble in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on January 10, 2005
Destroyed houses are seen in this aerial view of the town of Meulaboh in Aceh province, Indonesia, on New Year’s Day 2005
A photo of a mosque in an area destroyed by the tsunami in Kuala Bubon on the outskirts of Meulaboh, Aceh province in Indonesia, taken on January 19, 2005
Tsunami survivors rummage through the rubble in the commercial area of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwestern Indonesia, in this December 31, 2004 photo
Debris scattered around a standing mosque in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, more than two weeks after a devastating tsunami ravaged Asia
A street in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia is flooded with water, mud and debris in the minutes after the tsunami washed over the city
A woman walks near a mosque with the waste from the earthquake and tsunami in Banda Aceh
A man walks over the rubble of houses destroyed by tsunami waves in Galle, Sri Lanka, December 29, 2004
People displaced by the tsunamis walk through their devastated neighborhood in Banda Aceh, Indonesia on January 4, 2005
An unidentified woman cries after tidal waves destroyed her coastal home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 26, 2004
A survivor rummages through the rubble in the commercial area of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwestern Indonesia, December 31, 2004
An aerial view taken from a US Navy Seahawk helicopter from aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln shows the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami west of Aceh on January 8, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Children from Aceh carry boxes of food aid distributed by the Indonesian Navy in the tsunami-ravaged town of Calang, Aceh province, Saturday, January 22, 2005
Acehnese youth try to pull a man to higher ground through a flooded street in Indonesia in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami
Survivors of the Asian earthquake and tsunami that struck the region on December 26 walk along a remote road in Indonesia