Portal:Indonesia/AOTW/35, 2006



The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis that spread throughout the Indian Ocean, killing large numbers of people and inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia, including parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. Although initial estimates have put the worldwide death toll at over 275,000 with thousands of others missing, recent analysis compiled lists a total of 229,866 persons lost, including 186,983 dead and 42,883 missing. The figure excludes 400 to 600 people who are believed to have perished in Myanmar which is more than that government's official figure of only 61 dead. The catastrophe is one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. The disaster is known in Asia and in the international media as the Asian Tsunami, and also called the Boxing Day Tsunami in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as it took place on Boxing Day. (read more...)