Portraits of victims from the Asian tsunami are displayed during a memorial service in Phang Nga, Ban Nam Khem province, Thailand, Dec. 26...
Portraits of victims from the Asian tsunami are displayed during a memorial service in Phang Nga, Ban Nam Khem province, Thailand, Dec. 26, 2014.
Beach side memorials, moments of silence, and religious services are planned across Asia on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed at least 220,000 people in 2004.
The gigantic wave stuck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. It destroyed entire coastal communities, wiped out families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas.
The disaster was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the region's most powerful in 40 years, that sent waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa. It was so powerful that it caused the Earth’s axis to wobble a few centimeters.
One of the worst-hit areas was Indonesia's Aceh province, where a ceremony was held Friday. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla remembered how the world came together following the tragedy.
"This commemoration ceremony is not only to pray for the victims and thank the people around the world, but it is a time when we learn how to resolve the problem, as the lesson [from the tsunami] taught us, how to resolve a complicated problem by uniting as one," said Kalla.
Many of the regions hit by the tsunami were underdeveloped and struggled to recover from the disaster. Eventually, over $13 billion was collected to aid in the relief and reconstruction effort.
The tsunami led separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province to lay down their arms in order to rebuild their lives. The three-decade rebellion against Indonesia ended in 2005, after having claimed 15,000 lives.
Indonesia was hardest hit by the tsunami, with more than 160,000 dead. Thousands more were killed in Thailand and Sri Lanka
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