More than 23,000 people have died across southern Asia after a massive earthquake in the ocean set off a series of tsunamis. More than one million people have been left homeless. Scientists said the earthquake registered at a magnitude of 9.0 making it the world’s largest earthquake in four decades.

Hardest hit were Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. More than a thousand died in Malaysia, Maldives, Bangladesh. At least nine people even died in the eastern coast of Somalia some 3,000 miles from the earthquakes epicenter.

The earthquake generated waves as high as 40 feet that swept across the Indian Ocean.

Some scientists say the catastrophic death toll might have been reduced had India and Sri Lanka been part of an international warning system designed to warn coastal communities about potentially deadly tsunamis. The Wall Street Journal reports a tsunami of this size is unprecedented in the Indian Ocean.