The earthquake that struck just before 7am on December 26 was the strongest recorded for 40 years, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, compared with the 8.7 quake that hit in the Indian Ocean on Monday.

In the mayhem that followed the December disaster, at least 150,000 people died as the 5-mile high tsunamis hit the western coast of Indonesia and devastated coastal areas of Sri Lanka, southern India and Indonesia, as well as Thailand and Malaysia.