The tsunami was precipitated by a 9.3 magnitude earthquake off the coast of sumatra, indonesia.
The earthquake was third strongest earthquake ever measured using the richter scale in recorded history.
The other two were the valdivia earthquake in chile in 1960 with 9.5 and in alaska in 1964 with a magnitude of 9.2.
The 2004 indian ocean earthquake occured at 00:58:53 UTC on 26 december with the epicentre off the west coast of sumatra, indonesia
The undersea megatrust earthquake was caused when the indian plate was subducted by the burma plate and triggered a series of devastatinf tsunami along the coast of most landmasses bordering the indian ocean killing 230.000 - 280.000 people in the 14 countries.
