Asian Tsunami, the BrE AmE ( also 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake )
a series of ↑ tsunami s caused by a very severe ↑ earthquake (=shaking of the earth) that took place on December 29th, 2004 under the sea with its centre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The tsunamis affected eleven countries on the Indian Ocean, and killed 225,000 people. The worst affected countries were India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.