Tsunami - December 2004, Indonesia
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On 26 December 2004, an earthquake with a Moment Magnitude of 9.3 occurred 250 km west of northern Sumatra, triggering a devastating transoceanic tsunami1.
The tsunami propagated across the Indian Ocean, striking Thailand, Sri Lanka, India (notably the Andaman and Nicobar islands), Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and the Seychelles (1). Within 90 minutes, the tsunami crossed the Bay of Bengal and struck Sri Lanka and India, and reached Phuket and neighbouring provinces of Thailand around 30 minutes later. The tsunami claimed, 31,000 in Sri Lanka, 15,000 in India and 5396 in Thailand2. In total, more than a million people in 10 nation states that were made homeless3.
Worst affected was Sumatra's Aceh province, where waves at least 15 m, and possibly up to 30 m, high, reached the west coast just 30 minutes after the main shock1. Approximately 128,645 people died in Aceh, with 37,063 missing (presumed dead)4. More than 1550 villages were completely destroyed in 172 sub-districts resulting in a homeless total of well over half a million5,6,7.
In Aceh province, mortality rates were higher for women (18.4 percent) than for men (9.6 percent), and in some parts of the province, 80 percent of deaths were women8.
1 ReliefWeb. 2005. The Indian Ocean Tsunami: a chronology
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6K886E?OpenDocument&rc...
2 Greenhough, B, Jazeel, T & Massey, D. 2005. The Indian Ocean tsunami: geographical commentaries One year on. The Geographical Journal. Vol. 171, pp 369-386
3 Morrow, R.C & Llewellyn, D.M. 2006. Tsunami Overview. Military Medicine. Vol. 171, pp 5-7.
4 ReliefWeb. 2005. Three months on: New figures show Tsunami may have killed up to four times as many women as men.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/0/68d1418ac4e9fbc685256fcc007e802e?O...
5 ReliefWeb. 2005. South Asia: Tsunami & Health Situation Report #31
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6963NF?OpenDocument&rc...
6 BBC News. 2005. At-a-glance: Countries hit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4126019.stm#Indonesia
7 Stone, R & Kerr, R.A. 2005. Indian Ocean Tsunami: Girding for the Next Killer Wave. Science. Vol. 310, pp 1602-1605
8 Rofi, A & Robinson, C. 2006. Tsunami mortality and displacement in Aceh province, Indonesia. Disasters. Vol. 30, pp 340-350
Event overview table
| No. Deaths | 130,000 |
| No. Injured | |
| No. Affected | 1,000,000 |
| Houses destroyed | 21,659 |
| Houses damaged | |
| Other damage | - Crops |
| Economic cost | $2,147,483,647 |