The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
26 Dec 2004, 00:58:53 – 11 Apr 201230 items
disasterearthquakesOne morning across an ocean
At 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday 26 December 2004, just before eight in the morning in Aceh, the sea floor off northern Sumatra broke along more than a thousand kilometres. The tsunami it raised reached Aceh within half an hour, Thailand and Sri Lanka in about two hours, India and the Maldives within three or four, and the coast of Somalia some seven hours later. No warning system covered the Indian Ocean, and on most of those coasts no one was told it was coming.
This timeline follows the wave place by place, hour by hour, beside the bulletins issued from Hawaii, then closes with a short aftermath: the relief effort, the peace agreement in Aceh and the warning system built after it.
By the numbers
about 227,000 to 230,000 dead and missing in 14 countries, depending on the source and on how the missing are counted; the USGS gives 227,898
Mw 9.1 to 9.3: the USGS gives 9.1; estimates from the Earth's longest-period vibrations reach 9.3 (Stein and Okal)
about 1,300 kilometres of fault broke, over about eight to ten minutes; estimates of the length run from 1,200 to 1,600
“No destructive tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data.” The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's first bulletin, 01:14 UTC, written for the Pacific.
Reading it
All times are UTC. The notes give the local clock: Aceh and Thailand were seven hours ahead, Sri Lanka six (it moved to five and a half in 2006), India five and a half, the Maldives five and Somalia three. Where sources agree only on the hour, an item is an hour wide. Filter by tsunami for the wave's arrivals, warnings for who knew what and when, earthquakes for the fault, eyewitness for people who read the sea in time, rescue for relief and rebuilding, and diplomacy for the peace in Aceh.
Death tolls are those of named sources. Country figures, dead and missing together, are from the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition's table (2006), which totals 227,898.
Items
The earthquake strikes off Sumatra
Simeulue remembers the smong
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's first bulletin
The wave reaches Aceh's west coast
Car Nicobar is overwhelmed
Banda Aceh is flooded
A power barge is carried into the city
The second bulletin: “the possibility of a tsunami”
Jason-1 crosses the wave
Tilly Smith reads the sea at Mai Khao
Sri Lanka's east coast
The wave reaches Phuket
Khao Lak
Chennai's Marina Beach
Nagapattinam
The Queen of the Sea at Peraliya
Hawaii learns from the news
The Maldives
The wave reaches the Horn of Africa
The third bulletin: the wave in the Pacific
Jakarta summit and the UN flash appeal
The Nias earthquake
Peace in Aceh: the Helsinki agreement
The warning system is declared operational
The ocean's own warning centres take over
The system's first great test