Fact Check

Tsunami

Does a photograph show a large pile of debris and corpses created by the Indian Ocean tsunami?

Published Jan. 5, 2009

Claim:

Claim:   Photograph shows a large pile of debris and corpses created by the Indian Ocean tsunami.


Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2004]





Tsunami(Click photo to enlarge)



Origins:   This photograph of a shoreline debris field serves as a grim reminder that not only did the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 destroy a tremendous amount of infrastructure, buildings, and property, but it wreaked a terrible toll in human lives as well.

The picture displayed above was taken near the port at Banda Aceh in Indonesia on 29 December 2004, and a cropped version ran on the front page of The Guardian the following day (credited to photographer Darren Whiteside from the Reuters news agency). A close-up photograph of the same area can be viewed here.

Last updated:   7 January 2005


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.