Abstract
The 2004 Sumatra earthquake, occurred at 00: 58: 53 UTC on December 26, 2004, followed by the Indian oceanic tsunami was the largest earthquake in magnitude of M 9.0 in the world since the 1960 Chilean earthquake. The epicenter was located west off Sumatra Island, but the aftershocks extended through Nicobar to Andaman Islands; the total length is more than 1, 000 km. The number of casualties, death and missing together, is the largest in Indonesia (220, 000), followed by Sri Lanka (35, 000), India (16, 000) and Thailand (8, 300). About 300 fatalities are reported from Somalia, east coast of Africa. In total, nearly 300, 000 lives were lost by the tsunami. The information on the media and the result from the field investigation are introduced in the new disaster's point of view. The frame work to mitigate the tsunami disaster in the future is discussed in the paper.
