Although the provisional death toll of 25 000 is one-tenth that of both the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004 and the Haiti earthquake last year, the tragedy has deeply traumatized the population.

UNESCO: Social and Human Sciences

Minutes after the earthquake, Indian Ocean Regional Tsunami Service Providers of Australia, India and Indonesia issued bulletins with detailed information and threat evaluations.

UNESCO: EDUCATION

UNESCO-IOC established the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System following the 2004 earthquake and tsunami off the shores of Indonesia that took the lives of over 200, 000 people.

UNESCO: Social and Human Sciences

The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System functioned effectively during the magnitude 7.7 earthquake and tsunami.

UNESCO: THEMES

Sanny Jegillos, program coordinator for the UNDP's regional center in Bangkok, rates the Indian Ocean early tsunami warning systems as superior to those of the Pacific in terms of earthquake monitoring and detection.

CNN: Asian tsunami warning system: A last-mile challenge

The fear is that it turns out to be the worst natural disaster since the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, when 86, 000 died, or even the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 that killed 230, 000.

ECONOMIST: The earthquake in Haiti