13 Moving Photos Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Friday marked the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, one of modern history's worst natural disasters. The devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries, killing 230,000 people. 

The tsunami eradicated entire coastal communities and decimated families the morning after Christmas, forcing survivors to wade through "a horror show of corpse-filled waters," as the Associated Press described it. "I cannot forget the smell of the air, the water at that time ... even after 10 years," Teuku Ahmad Salman, a 51-year-old Indonesian survivor, told the Associated Press. "I cannot forget how I lost hold of my wife, my kids, my house."

Survivors, friends and relatives cried and prayed as they gathered along Indian Ocean shorelines Friday for memorials to mark the 10th anniversary of a disaster.