Part 2/14:

Twenty years ago, the world watched in horror as the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004, unfolded—a magnitude 9.15 megathrust quake off the west coast of Sumatra that unleashed the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. With energy equivalent to 2,200 atomic bombs, the seismic event ruptured a fault line for over 1,200 kilometers, causing waves up to 50 meters high that traveled across the Indian Ocean at speeds of approximately 800 kilometers per hour. Countries from Indonesia to Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives suffered catastrophic impacts, with hundreds of thousands losing their lives and countless more displaced or injured.