Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004

Many of you probably know about the extremely devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004. Aptly named the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, a 9-magnitude earthquake occurred beneath the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra, the largest island that is completely part of INDONESIA, and near the Andaman Islands, which belong to INDIA. Almost 200,000 people died, and the earthquake/tsunami severely affected Indonesia and India. In fact, it devastated quite a lot of countries that border the Indian Ocean, including BANGLADESH, MALAYSIA, MALDIVES, MYANMAR, THAILAND, SRI LANKA, KENYA, MADAGASCAR, SEYCHELLES, SOMALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, and TANZANIA.

AFTERMATH: Platforms have been set up on the sea floor to keep track of seismic activity in the Indian Ocean. The system is called the Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART), which sends signals to floating buoys (which were provided by the UNITED STATES) whenever there is possible seismic activity.