Great South-East Asian Tsunami kills over 140,000.
An otherwise uneventful year in the realm of natural disasters, is capped with the mother of all disasters when, on the day after Christmas, a level 9 earthquake sparks tsunamis that will take an estimated 120,000 lives across the islands and coastal areas of the Indian Ocean. In the wake of this tragedy, an unprecedented global tidal wave of charity and compassion proves that, despite a lack of peace on earth, we are taking a step in the right direction with some goodwill toward man.
“At 7:59 a.m. local time, about 150 kilometres off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, two tectonic plates heaved under the sea along a 1,000 kilometre-long fault line. The result: a magnitude 9 earthquake – the most powerful the world had seen in 40 years. Parts of the sea floor rose by about 10 metres, displacing hundreds of cubic kilometres of seawater. That generated a tsunami – a series of huge waves that quickly fanned out across the Indian Ocean.”
— excerpt from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Website