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At 00:58:53 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. This was the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and the largest in over 40 years. It was caused by the release of stresses in the Earth that are built up as the Indian tectonic plate descends into the mantle beneath the Burma plate. It is estimated that the sea floor was displaced several meters due to the quake, resulting in large ocean waves, called "tsunamis" from the Japanese for "harbor waves." The tsunami moved rapidly across the deep ocean, with speeds estimated around 640 km/hr. When the waves reach shallow water near land, they slow considerably, but their size increases dramatically and they strike with catastrophic force. With human casualties exceeding 150,000, this event is one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history, causing devastation along the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries.

This picture is clicked 45 days post Tsunami at Chidiya Tapu,Port Blair, South Andaman.