‘On December 26, 2004 at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok) a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, throwing out one of the largest tsunami wave sets ever recorded.’ To understand more about just what a tsunami is and what can be done to lessen the impact of such natural forces in future, check out wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia.

BBC online is carrying an excellent round-up of all aspects of the Asia quake disaster with latest news being added to it daily.

The Guardian also has a broadbased perspective on the crisis from the prospect of political conflict being rekindled in Sri Lanka to how the world’s architects can help in the rebuilding effort.

Find out what the Department of International Development is doing on behalf of the UK government.

The lead agency in the UK raising funds to help survivors and speed reconstruction in the region is the Disasters Emergency Committee.

For a wider trawl through leading global development agencies working in the region, Google is offering a directory.

Following the Jakarta summit in early January where world governments formally responded to the disaster, Oxfam provides a briefing note on what the priorities for government and others must be.

Billions of dollars were pledged within weeks of the disaster, but some commentators have expressed concern that international donors do stick to their promises in the months and years to come.

Anuradha Vittachi, writing for OneWorld UK, argues that people power – signified by the sums being donated by ordinary people – has galvanised governments to be more generous. But not just with money. ‘Money isn’t the only issue. Another way in which people power has helped is in the public demonstrations of empathy and compassion, which both demonstrated and reinforced our sense of human connectedness worldwide.’

In fact a growing number of commentators believe that the tragic consequences of the tsunami may herald a step-change in the way the rich world works to create justice for the poor world.

According to an editorial in The Times the world has become ‘smaller’ as generosity is forged through a new sense of connection to the poor. ‘The power of human compassion, in the face of the terrifying power of nature, has reduced the degrees of separation that we usually feel from other parts of the world.’

On a similar note, argues historian Timothy Garton Ash ‘This wave of global solidarity must not end in a detritus of broken promises…. a tsunami of human solidarity is sweeping across the surface of the globe in response to the physical tsunami that has ravaged the shores of the Indian Ocean… probably the biggest humanitarian relief operation in history.’ This is another sign of ‘moral globalisation’. ‘Increasingly, citizens of rich countries identify with people far away and see themselves as having some moral obligation towards them.’