Earthquake

An earthquake resulting from a 8-10 minute shifting of the oceanic fault lines (the longest shifting recording) just off the northwest coast of Sumatra occurred at 00:58 UTC December the 26th 2004. This earthquake measure between 9.1 to 9.3 in magnitude on the Richter scale, making it the second largest quake recorded. Due to this magnitude, smaller earthquakes were triggered across the planet.

map

http://www.dri.ne.jp/koshimuras/sumatra/#m6

areal photo

Deep Ocean Tsunami Waves off the Sri Lankan Coast

http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/galhistory/2005_jan_26.html

This is an aeral shot taken by  NASA's Terra satellite with a Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), which shows the deep sea tsunami waves off the coast of Sri Lanka. The waves are visible due to the sun glint on the water. The area in the phot is 208 km by 207 km.

Wave Movement

The tsunami that was generated form this quake readiated out of a line source about 1600 km long in an east-west direction and began traveling across the Indian ocean, first contacting the coast of Indonesia near the town of Banda Aceh approximately 25 minutes later. This was followed by two more waves about 30 minutes apart. These waves were determined to reach a height of 24 m and traveling as far as 2 km inland. About an hour later the tsunami reach the Sri Lanka and Thailand with waves between 5 and 10 m approximately 10 minutes apart.

 

The tsunami continued across the Indian Ocean causes damage in many countries, reaching the coast of South Africa 16 hours later with sudden tidal swells of about 1.5 m.

The travel time chart.

http://tsun.sscc.ru/tsulab/20041226.htm#"