2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: A look back at one of the deadliest natural disasters that claimed over 2 lakh lives

In a span of just 20 minutes of massive earthquake in Indian ocean, humongous sea waves rising above over 100 feet crashed into capital city of Indonesia and killed over 170,000 people.

Image credit: Pixabay (Representational image)

New Delhi: On December 26, 2004, the Indian Ocean was jolted by largest recorded earthquake of its history with the magnitude of 9.1 which lead to one of the deadliest and destructive natural disaster, Tsunami. The word tsunami is derived from the Japanese words tsu (harbor) and nami (wave). Tsunamis are quite rare, but in 2004 the natural calamity claimed the life of 227,000 people, accordding to World Bank blog, in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand being the hardest hit.

As per media reports, the massive earthquake of 9.1 magnitude that lasted for 8 to 10 minutes caused the seafloor to rise over 120 feet and triggered the diastrous tsunami.

Just in 20 minutes of activity under Indian-ocean 100-foot waves had hit the Banda Aceh of Indonesia climing lives of more than 170,000 people and turned the capital city of Sumatra island into pile of debris.

In India 12,405 people lost there lives including 107 in Andhra Pradesh, 177 in Kerala, 8009 in Tamil Nadu, 599 in Pondicherry and 3513 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The devastating natural disaster