The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake of moment magnitude 9.1–9.3 that struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on 26 December 2004 at 00:58:50 UTC (07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok).
The first few days, the Norwegian Foreign office was in charge of collating names and information about people reported missing or with possible whereabouts in the environs of the hit areas.
According to their information, 21 Norwegian citizens were confirmed to be killed during the calamity, and about 1,600 were either missing or of unknown whereabouts presumptively in the general South and East Asia regions.
Apparently due to the stringency of presumed death declarations, a Norwegian Tamil woman who was killed in the waves in a part of Sri Lanka controlled by the Tamil Tigers, found after one day, identified by local friends and relatives and buried in Sri Lanka on 2 January, remained listed as "missing" on the official list.
The number of missing (then eighty) thus included some people whose bodies had been identified by relatives or friends, but not yet by the authorities.
The sculpture by John Audun Hauges entitled Interferens is located on the western shore of Bygdøy in Oslo.