Tsunami and earthquake, Sumatra, December 26, 2004

This is footage of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the island of Sumatra, Thailand, and Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004.  More than 225,000 persons died.  The earthquake ruptured a part of the subduction zone for a length in excess of 1600 km.  This event was the second- or third-most powerful earthquake ever recorded instrumentally.  The others were the 22 May, 1960 Valdivia, Chile earthquake, magnitude 9.5, and the 27 March 1964 Alaska earthquake, magnitude 9.3.  Slip in the Sumatra earthquake was as large as 20 meters.