What had happened during that tsunami was that plates in the earths crust had slipped causing an earthquake of about 9.3 which is about the biggest earthquake that ever happened.  One of the earth’s crusts was forced upward by internal pressures, while the other plate or piece of the earth’s crust was forced downward, and this action displaced a huge amount of water.   The water was forced upward and outward in every direction, at once.  The massive all-encompassing circle of outwardly spiraling water, traveled faster and faster. Some experts say it was going about 600 miles an hour.  It was not a huge wave.  It was a wall of water several hundred miles long, but hard to detect.  Then, as this massive moving force came into contact with the shallow waters along the coast lines of islands, inlets and shores of many countries; it is forced upward into a gigantic, towering monster.  Tsunami waters pulls the shallow water away from shore, then forces itself upon every structure, and destroys all that is in its path, as far outward as it can reach, until all of its energy is spent.  The end result of this tsunami was that over 150,000 people died and many thousands more are missing.  The destruction of land, and infrastructures, took place in Thailand, Penang in Malaysia, Sri Lanka in India, Indonesia, and even as far away as Somalia in Africa.  The economic effect in these areas is devastating too, because there is no money to rebuild, ports, homes, businesses and tourist destinations.  Many people feel that living as it was, before that terrible December day, will never again be the same.