A massive tsunami strikes south Asia devastating the area and claiming the lives of more than 200,000 people in 13 countries. The undersea earthquake, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, is known by the scientific community as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. The following tsunami is known as the Asian Tsunami or the Boxing Day Tsunami. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit. With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. __
