On the morning of December 26, 2004, many coastal residents of
northwestern Sumatra were startled as water at the shore
dramatically receded below the normal low-water mark, leaving
fish flapping on the exposed beach. The people drawn closer to
the coast by this remarkable sight surely didn't know how to
explain the water's bizarre behavior. Yet even in the early
hours of the tsunami disaster, scientists began to grasp what
was happening. In the following days, using maps of the
seafloor and seismic data, tsunami researchers produced
remarkably accurate computer simulations of the monstrous
series of waves that took hundreds of thousands of lives. In
this interactive, examine some of these models and other
graphics that reveal details of the tsunami from its initial
generation in deep water to its deadly collision with coasts
around the Indian Ocean. To launch the
interactive, click on
the image at left.—Susan K. Lewis
