--- title: Boxing Day Tsunami: TIME's Cover Story description: Read TIME's report on the tsunami that struck a decade ago canonical: https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-26T14:00:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:54:57.546Z article:section: History og:title: Boxing Day Tsunami: TIME's Cover Story og:description: Read TIME's report on the tsunami that struck a decade ago og:url: https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece63ec9c8b90638/69876f2fcd6848dbc6098a8a/1101050110_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Tsunami Cover og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Boxing Day Tsunami: TIME's Cover Story twitter:description: Read TIME's report on the tsunami that struck a decade ago twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece63ec9c8b90638/69876f2fcd6848dbc6098a8a/1101050110_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Caused the Boxing Day Tsunami  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 26, 2014 2:00 PM UTC  The Jan. 10, 2005, cover of TIME The Jan. 10, 2005, cover of TIMETIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 26, 2014 2:00 PM UTC The day of Dec. 26, 2004, started with an earthquake, off the coast of Sumatra, and only got worse as the resulting tsunami hit coastal nations throughout the Indian Ocean. As TIME explained in a special issue devoted to the devastation, the geology behind the tsunami caused a chain reaction of disaster: --- > “” --- **_Tiina Seppanen survived, but more than 100,000 others did not._** **_Read the rest of the special issue, here in the TIME Vault, to learn more about what happened:_** [Tsunami](http://time.com/vault/issue/2005-01-10/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/"},"headline":"What Caused the Boxing Day Tsunami","datePublished":"2014-12-26T14:00:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:54:57.546Z","description":"Read TIME's report on the the natural disaster that struck ten years ago.","url":"https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/","keywords":["natural disaster","tsunami"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece63ec9c8b90638/69876f2fcd6848dbc6098a8a/1101050110_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece63ec9c8b90638/69876f2fcd6848dbc6098a8a/1101050110_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tsunami Cover","caption":"Tsunami Cover","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/natural-disaster/","name":"natural disaster"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3636613/what-caused-the-boxing-day-tsunami/","name":"What Caused the Boxing Day Tsunami"}}]}] ```