In 2004, resulting from the destruction caused by the

Believe it or not guys, the OA is E! I need a strong explanation for this one. I also picked D, but it's wrong.

I think "which", most of the times, may refer to the noun before it, but in this case "which" has its precending noun refferent attached ("the largest tsunami").

While in E, the modifier set between commas "the largest of the modern era" seems to refer to Indian Ocean.

E is right.

I got the following rule from some post here.
"In the vast majority of cases, if a pronoun agrees with both a previous subject and a previous object, it will refer to the subject, even though the object is usually closer".

Also, reference of which is made more clear in option E by using "Tsunami" word after "which".

D is wrong choice as
...by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the largest of the modern era...
the largest of the modern era incorrectly describe the Indian ocean but it should describe the tsunami.

E is correct (it looks wordy but all other choices have grammatical errors, so have to select E for this one)

D is wrong choice as
...by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the largest of the modern era...
the largest of the modern era incorrectly describe the Indian ocean but it should describe the tsunami.

E is correct (it looks wordy but all other choices have grammatical errors, so have to select E for this one)

then how come "which" sometimes refers to the object and then sometimes refers to the subject? I've seen this happening ALL THE TIME and could no longer understand what's the set rule regarding this issue. Because when I follow exactly what you say, I would get a question that would use "which" to refer to the object WRONG. So would you help me with this issue? why do I see contradiction regarding "which" all the time?
thanks

I chose D as many others here. But If E is right it must be because in D we have "Indian Ocean, the largest of the modern era"

Now Indian ocean might be largest, but in the *modern era* ??

Regarding usage of "which" - We need to remember that there is *no set rule* in English language. We have exceptions for almost every grammar rule.

Ok. Now what do we do when we have a pronoun error in our SC questions ?? We choose an option which shows a clear antecedent for the pronoun.

In this sentence which is used as a relative pronoun. And it is mostly used when we have non-restrictive clauses.
"which was the largest tsunami of the modern era" . the word tsunami clears any ambiguity which can arise.
If the option E had "which was the largest of the modern era" it would have been wrong definitely.

I am not a Grammar guru. Just my 2 cents

Below info from : https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/clauses.htm

Restrictive/Non-restrictive :

Clauses are also classified as restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. (The words essential and nonessential are sometimes used and mean the same thing as restrictive and nonrestrictive, respectively. British grammarians will make this same distinction by referring to clauses with the terms defining and non-defining.) A nonrestrictive clause is not essential to the meaning of the sentence; it can be removed from the sentence without changing its basic meaning. Nonrestrictive clauses are often set apart from the rest of the sentence by a comma or a pair of commas (if it's in the middle of a sentence).

Relative clauses:

Relative clauses are dependent clauses introduced by a Relative Pronoun (that, which, whichever, who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, and of which). Relative clauses can be either restrictive or nonrestrictive. Review the section on Comma Usage for additional help in determining whether relative clauses are restrictive or nonrestrictive (parenthetical or not) and whether commas should be used to set them off from the rest of the sentence. In a relative clause, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb (remember that all clauses contain a subject-verb relationship) and refers to (relates to) something preceding the clause.

* Giuseppe said that the plantar wart, which had been bothering him for years, had to be removed.

(In this sentence, the clause in this color is a restrictive [essential] clause [a noun clause — see below] and will not be set off by a comma; the underlined relative clause [modifying "wart"] is nonrestrictive [nonessential — it can be removed from the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence] and is set off by commas.)

Some relative clauses will refer to more than a single word in the preceding text; they can modify an entire clause or even a series of clauses.

* Charlie didn't get the job in administration, which really surprised his friends.
Charlie didn't get the job in administration, and he didn't even apply for the Dean's position, which really surprised his friends.