Sumatran earthquake spawns devastating tsunami

Abstract

The devastating tsunami that followed the M 9.0 earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on 26 December “to our knowledge is the first global tsunami,” according to Eddie Bernard, director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Bernard, past chairman of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigat said he received reports on 28 December that the tsunami had been recorded on tide gages as far away as Kamchatka, Russia. He anticipates that it also may have been recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.