Alexander B. Rabinovich Russian Academy of Sciences, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia The Sumatra tsunami of December 26, 2004: Observations and analysis of tide gauge data from the World Ocean Wednesday 10th May 14:05-14:55pm, Carslaw Building Room 373. At 07:59 Local Time (00:59 UTC) on December 26, 2004, a Mw = 9.3 megathrust earthquake occurred along 1300 km of the oceanic subduction zone 100 km west of Sumatra and the Andaman Islands in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean. The earthquake generated highly destructive tsunami waves that strongly impacted the coastal regions of the Indian Ocean, killing more than 226,000 people. Because of international tourism, many countries far removed from the major disaster areas lost citizens, triggering the largest international aid and relief effort in history. The waves from this event were recorded within most of the world's oceans and represent one of few documented global-scale tsunamis, in which waves generated in one ocean propagate into adjoining oceans. The tsunami was the first to occur during the "instrumental era" and was recorded by a large number of tide gauges throughout the World Ocean, including tide gauges in the North Pacific and North Atlantic. It was also clearly recorded by a number of instruments along the west, south and east coasts of Australia. Global tsunami propagation models have demonstrated that mid-ocean ridges served as wave-guides, efficiently transmitting the tsunami energy from the source area to far-field regions of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America. The 2004 Sumatra tsunami is now recognized as the most globally distributed and accurately measured tsunami in recorded history. Approximately 200 digital records of this tsunami are available and months after the event, tsunami measurements are still being collected and archived. The main purpose of this presentation is to review the records found for the 2004 Sumatra tsunami and to present some basic statistical characteristics of these records for three major regions:(1) the Indian Ocean; (2) the Atlantic Ocean; and (3) the Pacific Ocean. The study also compares tsunami wave characteristics in the near-field (Indian Ocean) with those in the far-field (Atlantic and Pacific) regions, provides estimates of the relative influence of the source and topography on these waves, and reconstructs the spectral properties of the source zone.