Article on Tsunami (Twitter/Wikipedia assignment)

killing nearly 230,000 people in eleven countries, the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami was one of the countries worse natural disasters in recent history. The tsunami was caused by an undersea magathrust Earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004, containing an epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The Tsunami reached coastal shores of 11 different countries with some waves as high as 100 feet high. It was the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph with a magnitude between 9.1 and 9.3. The countries who received the biggest hit were Indonesia, India, and Thailand. This underwater earthquake also had the longest duration of faulting ever observed. It lasted approximately 8 to 10 minutes. The earthquake was so loud that it triggered earthquakes as far away as Alaska.
Given the length of time over which the earthquake took place, it created a series of waves instead of just large one. An estimated 1,600 km of fault line slipped about 15 meters of it's original location and happened over a series of two shifts.
Because of the tsunami's devastating results to countries across the globe, it sparked a very large humanitarian response. Countries from across the globe donated money to the struggling countries totaling around seven billion dollars. The largest economical impact the tsunami brought to these countries mainly surrounded fisheries. Being an export-oriented sector, that is responsible for generating substantial foreign exchange earnings, these countries took a massive financial hit. Also, because of the psychological effects the tragedy had on so many people across the world, many places saw a vast number of resort cancellations for tourists. Even the areas that were not affected by the tsunami experienced huge cancellations.
The main environmental impact aside from the human death toll was the sanitation and condition of much of the land. Mangroves, coral reefs, forests, were all destroyed and even the sewage system was completely ruptured. Overall, the Tsunami was one of the worse natural disasters in recorded history and it will affect the these countries for many years to come.