The day the earth shook: Twenty years on, the videos and images that encapsulate the ferocity and terror of the Boxing Day tsunami
For ten straight minutes, the entire planet shook violently, sending seismic waves across itself that changed the world for the worse.
For ten straight minutes, the entire planet shook violently, sending seismic waves across itself that changed the world for the worse.
In the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, caused by the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded, countless images of piled up dead bodies, partially rotted from their time floating in blackened seawater, from far-flung lands splashed newspapers and led the evening news across the world.
While much of the world was safe from one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, much of Asia, which suffered 180,000 confirmed deaths, is still reeling from its impact to this day.
The epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, was just 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia. The massive Indian Plate slide around 50ft under the Burma Plate just before 8am local time on December 26 2004. In two phases, with just 100 seconds between them, the rupture travelled across the Earth at a speed of 6,260mph, starting off the coast of Indonesia, and travelling up the fault line between the two plates towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 9.25, making it the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded, displaced more than seven cubic miles of water in a matter of minutes, triggering the tsunami. Violent, deadly waves nearly 100ft high radiated outward from the epicentre. At its fastest, in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean, it travelled up to 620mph.
As the waves reached the shores of more than a dozen countries across two continents, the shallow coastal waters slowed the waves down massively, but in doing so formed destructive waves. By one estimate, these waves carried twice as much energy than all of the explosives used during WWII, including the two atomic bombs.
Indonesian locals at the time looked on in horror as the black giant crashed through the city of Banda Aceh. More than 130,000 people here were killed, making up the vast majority of the deaths caused by the tsunami.
Also hit were Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Malaysia, Tanzania, the Seychelles, Bangladesh, South Africa, Yemen, Kenya and Madagascar. Twenty years on, the scars of the disaster run deep in the minds of citizens of each of these countries.
Karin Svard, a policewoman from Sweden, can be seen running into the sea after her husband, three sons and brother. it later emerged that every one of them miraculously survived
Tidal waves of the Boxing Day Tsunami wash through houses at Maddampegama, about 38 miles south of Colombo, Sri Lanka
More than 35,000 people were killed by the tsunami in Sri Lanka alone
A photograph of the Boxing Day tsunami crashing through Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand
This photo taken on December 26 2004 shows people fleeing as a tsunami comes crashing ashore at Koh Raya, Thailand
This picture of an Indian woman mourning the death of a relative who was killed in the Boxing Day tsunami won the premier award in the World Press Photo competition that same year
A mother and her children walked past debris left in a street in Banda Aceh, Indonesia days after the tsunami struck
Satellite imagery shows the devastation wrought on Sri Lanka by the Boxing Day tsunami
US Navy Seahawk helicopter crew from carrier USS Abraham Lincoln observe 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 quake-triggered tsunami, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra January 24, 2005
Displaced Indonesians fight for relief food brought in by a US military helicopter at a UN refugee camp south of Panga in Aceh province, on Sumatra Island on Thursday Jan. 20, 2005
Acehnese residents seen wading through flooded street to higher ground a moment after the tsunami strike in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Refugee children try to catch relief goods tossed from an Australian military helicopter in a rice paddy in Lampaya, outskirts of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Jan. 17, 2005
Tsunami refugees receive supplies distributed by the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group in Kouati Sounam, around 60 miles south of Banda Aceh, on January 3, 2005
The wreckage of an excavator amid debris 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 Years Day 2005
A photo of a mosque in an area that was devastated by the tsunami in Kuala Bubon on the outskirts of Meulaboh, Aceh province of Indonesia, taken on January 19, 2005
Tsunami survivors rummage through the debris at the commercial area of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia in this December 31, 2004 photo
Debris seen scattered around a standing mosque at 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 seen flooded with water, mud and debris in the minutes after the tsunami washed over the city
A woman walks near a mosque with the rubbish from the quake and tsunami in Banda Aceh
A man walks over debris of houses destroyed by tsunami waves in Galle, Sri Lanka, 29 December 2004
People displaced by the tsunamis, walk amid their ruined neighbourhood on January 4, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia
An unidentified woman cries after tidal waves destroyed her house on the coastal areas in Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 26, 2004
A survivor rummages through the debris at the commercial area of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia, December 31, 2004
An aerial shot taken from a US Navy Seahawk helicopter from carrier USS Abraham Lincoln shows devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami to the west of Aceh on January 8, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Acehnese children carry boxes of food aid distributed by Indonesian Navy in the tsunami-ravaged town of Calang, Aceh province, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005
Acehnese youths 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
