Finally, some 18 hours after the quake, waves roughly 1 foot (0.3 metre) high reached the coast of Antarctica and caused a portion of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf to break off its outer edge.
Within seven hours of the quake, waves washed ashore on the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles) away on the other side of the Indian Ocean.
At the mouth of the Fraser, the largest river in British Columbia, where the current changes from a slow, steady riparian flow to the swift quaking waves of open ocean, I watch the smolt (a young salmon migrating from freshwater to saltwater) prepare for its big saltwater entry.
In the simulated quakes, waves lingered in loose sediments and sped through hard rock.
Both groups combed the data for signs of quakes' waves that may have reflected off the core, but each group took a very different approach.
During the quake, surface wave and body wave magnitudes were measured at 5.2 and 5.54 respectively.
In the Virginia quake, the wave energy did not dissipate very fast.
More than 800 miles west of the volcano, helicopters and boats were delivering aid to tsunami survivors in the most distant Mentawai islands, which lie almost directly over the fault that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean monster quake and wave.
Since the quake and wave hit, authorities have been struggling to avert an environmental catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo.
Just up the road, along the hillsides near the bridge that the quake and waves ravaged, residents were busily hammering together wood structures to make into tents.
