Exactly on this date, December 26, 17 years ago, there was an earthquake and tsunami that devastated Aceh and several other Southeast Asian countries. The event is always remembered every year to become a trending topic on Twitter.
Netizens are busy tweeting "Tsunami Aceh". When monitored by us, Sunday (12/26/2021), "Tsunami Aceh" was in the row of trending topics on Indonesian Twitter with more than 2 thousand tweets.
The uploaded tweets ranged from photos of the disaster, prayers for the victims, to the testimony of living witnesses of the Aceh tsunami.
Commemorating 17 years of the Aceh tsunami. Al-fatihah 🙏 pic.twitter.com/TDnTocIlMJ
— PIA (@ouhpiaa) December 26, 2021
Commemorating 17 years of the Aceh tsunami. Hopefully Acehku continues to rise. Al Fatihah to all martyrs.#tsunamiaceh #tsunami2004 pic.twitter.com/oea5ur7l8v
— Nailul Munar (@NailulMunar) December 26, 2021
commemorating the 17th anniversary of the aceh tsunami.. i really remember when i was a kid, sundays were very busy with news, i just knew what a tsunami was
— wear your mask properly (@callayeet) December 26, 2021
AL FATIHAH,
FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE ACEH TSUNAMI
26 DECEMBER 2004 https://t.co/7uzAlUmqs9
— Yayan Mulyati (@mulyati_yayan) December 26, 2021
Reflections on 17 Years of the Aceh Tsunami https://t.co/b8ipBXoYHu
— deAtjehers (@deAtjehers) December 26, 2021
Flashback to the heartbreaking event on December 26, 2004, an earthquake occurred at 07:58:53 WIB with its epicenter located off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, precisely between the islands of Simeulue and Sumatra.
The earthquake shaking was on the 9.1-9.3 scale on the Moment strength scale and IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. Underwater megathrust earthquakes occur when the Indian Plate is pushed down by the Burma Plate and triggers a series of deadly tsunamis along the mainland coast bordering the Indian Ocean.
The tsunami waves that reached 30 meters high killed about 280,000 people in 14 countries and drowned a number of coastal settlements.
This earthquake and tsunami is one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. Indonesia is the worst affected country besides Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
It is also the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and the longest fault duration in history (between 8.3 and 10 minutes). This earthquake caused the entire Earth to shake 1 cm and triggered earthquake activity in various regions, including Alaska.
The severity of the suffering of the affected people and countries has prompted various countries in the world to provide humanitarian assistance. The international community as a whole contributed more than USD 14 billion (2004) in humanitarian aid.
This event is also known among researchers as the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. And the tsunami that followed received various nicknames, including the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, South Asia Tsunami, Aceh Tsunami, Indonesian Tsunami, and the Christmas Tsunami.