In January 2005 Cornell University researchers created a video simulation of the deadly Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that shows in graphic detail how the massive wave system spread outward from the epicenter of an undersea earthquake northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia. The simulation, which compresses more than 10 hours in the life of the tidal wave into one minute, makes it clear how the tsunami struck the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India with such devastating force, then continued as far as East Africa.
