"Tsunami death toll may exceed 50,000"

At least 23,700 people have now been killed by Sunday's giant tsunami in southern Asia, according to the International Red Cross, amid signs the final toll could top 50,000.

The tsunami, triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian island of Sumatra, was the biggest in 40 years registering 9.0 on the Richter scale.

Full Article : aljazeera.net

Quake: Strength of a million A-bombs
The reaction that sent waves, equal in power to a million atomic bombs, crashing into Indian Ocean coasts on Sunday started more than 10km beneath the sea floor close to Sumatra, Indonesia.

Geologic plates pressing against each other slipped violently, creating a bulge on the bottom that could be as high as 10m and hundreds of kilometres long, one scientist said.

"It's just like moving an enormous paddle at the bottom of the sea," said David Booth, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey. "A big column of water has moved, we're talking about billions of tons. This is an enormous disturbance."
Full Article : aljazeera.net

Magnitude 9.0 - Off the West Coast of northern Sumatra
2004 December 26 00:58:50 Utc

How Earthquakes Happen

Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes