![]() ![]() The tsunami was recorded nearly worldwide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. ![]() In total, nearly 300,000 people were killed or presumed dead, and about 1.2 million people were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 10 countries in Southeast Asia and East Africa.Įxtremely strong shaking was felt in Banda Aceh, but the deadliest aspect of this quake was the resulting tsunami, which caused more deaths than any other in recorded history up to that point. This quake was the third-largest earthquake in history and the largest since the 1964 earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska (see #2). (Image credit: Photography by Mangiwau via Getty Images) The powerful waves striped bare the flat coastal plains causing immense loss of life and total devastation of coastal properties and farmlands. Sumatra-Andaman Islands, 2004, magnitude 9.1Īn aerial view of the devastated coastline to the south of Banda Aceh city, Indonesia, some 8 months after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. The quake was caused by thrust faulting near the Japan Trench, the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. Even in distant Antarctica, the quakes cracked large slabs of ice from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf, according to the USGS. This earthquake was the largest ever recorded in Japan, and cost an estimated $309 billion in damage.įor weeks afterward, strong aftershocks above magnitude 6.0, and even 7.0, continued to rock the region, and the quake sent tsunami waves as far as Hawaii, California and the Galapagos Islands. The quake also damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, leading to one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history. More than 332,000 buildings, 2,100 roads, 56 bridges and 26 railways were damaged as a result of the quake. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 quake triggered a tsunami that left more than 15,700 people dead, more than 4,600 missing, over 5,300 injured and more than 130,900 displaced, according to the USGS. ![]() Off the west coast of northern Sumatra, 2012, magnitude 8.6Įarthquake damage shown after the devastating magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake taken in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture 11 days after the major temblor struck the island nation. According to the USGS, the massive quake was unleashed in the aftermath of the massive Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 as the faults in the region continued to adjust to that seismic shift. ![]() The earthquake occurred because the Australian Plate is moving to the northeast at a rate of 2 inches (50 millimeters) per year and is diving into the mantle at the Sunda Trench. The quake was felt as far away as India and Sri Lanka. More than 1,300 people were killed, another 340 were injured and hundreds of buildings were destroyed, mostly on the island of Nias. That seismically unsettled region, where the Australian Plate and Sunda Plate meet, unleashed a massive amount of energy on March 28, 2005, when a magnitude 8.6 quake struck 48 miles (78 km) west of Singkil, at a depth of 18 miles (30 km). The area around Sumatra is a seismically active one, with the Indonesian island sitting astride the volcanically active Pacific Ring of Fire. The Sunda Trench unleased a massive quake near Indonesia. ![]()
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