Boxing Day tsunami: How the disaster unfolded 10 years ago

Updated December 24, 2014 13:15:58

The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 is believed to be the deadliest tsunami in history, killing more than 230,000 people across 14 countries.


Scientists say the earthquake was the third-biggest ever recorded, lasting up to 10 minutes and causing the Earth to vibrate up to one centimetre.

It also displaced an estimated 30 cubic kilometres of water, unleashing a massive tsunami across the Indian Ocean.

Within 15 minutes of the earthquake, waves began striking the coasts of northern Sumatra and the Nicobar islands.

Waves of up to 30 metres were recorded as the tsunami swept through Aceh, the hardest hit region of Indonesia.

Around two hours after the earthquake struck, waves reached Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

An hour later they reached the Maldives, and- more than seven hours after the initial quake, the tsunami was observed in Mauritius and along the east coast of Africa.

Its effects were seen as far away as Antarctica and North America.

Indonesia was the nation hardest hit by the tsunami, with at least 168,000 people killed when walls of water smashed into Nias island and Aceh province, which sits on the northern end of Sumatra.

In Sri Lanka 35,000 people were killed, while 18,000 died in India and 8,000 died in Thailand.

Hundreds also died in Africa.

Thousands of foreign travellers were killed in the disaster, including 26 Australians, all but two of whom died in Thailand.

In the wake of the disaster more that $14 billion in aid was pledged by the international community.

Prime minister John Howard pledged $1 billion over five years to rebuild tsunami-hit areas of Indonesia in "the single largest aid contribution ever made by Australia".

The government also pledged aid to other affected countries, while public and corporate donors contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to those affected.

Topics: tidal-wave, earthquake, indonesia, asia, sri-lanka, thailand, india

First posted December 24, 2014 13:11:50