The Deadliest Earthquake of the 21st Century

An earthquake is the violent shaking of the ground caused by the sudden release of seismic energy. Most major earthquakes are associated with plate boundaries. Most earthquakes don't last more than a minute but on one rare occasion in 1964, the Great Alaskan Earthquake lasted for around seven minutes. Severe aftershocks; which can be potentially dangerous, often occur after a major earthquake. The place above the focus on the earth's surface is called the epicentre.

Earthquakes are measured using two scales, the Mercalli Intensity scale which measures the destruction on a scale of I TO XI. A more reliable form of measurement is by using the Richter scale. It is more scientific and measures the size of the earthquake on a seismograph.

Indian Ocean 2004

On December 26th 2004, there was a massive undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

This earthquake was caused because the fault line where the earthquake took place slipped about 15 m along the subduction zone. This was due to a rupture about 400km long and 100km wide, 30km beneath the seabed.

The Earthquake had terrible effects and triggered a chain of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean. With a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter scale, it was the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever known and it lasted about 8-10 minutes. This earthquake was so powerful that it triggered other earthquakes around the world a far away as Alaska. The earthquake itself was felt as far away as Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives.

This image to the right shows what kind of effects the earthquake had and the Tsunamis that shortly followed caused a tremendous amount of damage by flooding roads and towns and killed thousands of people. Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia were amongst the hardest hit by the effects of the earthquake.

After the earthquake, around 230, 000 people were killed. The tsunamis probably did the most damage and caused a huge economical and environmental impact. Many businesses and companies were lost during the earthquake as well as many habitats for wildlife such as mangrove swamps and coral reefs. Thousands of people ended up homeless because of the effects of the earthquake and the tsunamis.

Death Toll: 283,100 fatalities

Damage: $ 5 billion (US)

This proves just how dangerous one earthquake can be. This is why they are one of the most hazardous disasters of the natural world.