Sunday, December 26, 2004
10:17 PM
BIGGEST QUAKE SINCE 1965
The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,200 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
The US Geological Survey's website recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, 1,620km north-west of Jakarta. It was centred 40km below the seabed, the website reported.
The earthquake was the world's fifth most powerful since 1900 and the strongest since a 9.2 temblor slammed Alaska in 1964, US earthquake experts said.
The force of it shook unusually far afield, causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after the region's Christian communities had finished Christmas celebrations.
Sometime .. i really feel so blessed to be living here .. in Singapore.
