8/2/2019 Indonesia Tsunami India vs Burma Plate-nasa

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acquired December 26, 2004download large image (1 MB, PDF)

The Earths solid surface floats on a layer of softer rock as a collection of interlocking, movable puzzle pieces called

tect onic plates. At 7:58 a.m. (local time), on December 26, 2 004, beneath the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra,

Indonesia, pent-up e nergy from the c ompressional forces of one tect onic plate grinding under another found a weak

spot in the o verlying rock. The rock was thrust upward, and the Earth shook as a 9.0 magnitude e arthquake sent its

vibrations out into the ocean. Tsunamis spread out in all directions; the massive waves washed over islands and crashed

against co astlines in Sri Lanka, Sout hern India, and even the east coast of A frica. Tens of thousands of pe ople were

killed; millions are homeless.

The image above shows how t he tec tonic puzzle pieces fit to gether around Indonesia. The epicente r of the recent

quake is marked with a red star in the image. It is located just to the east of t he Sunda Trench, where the India Platebegins to get subducte d beneath (forced unde r) the Burma Plate. The blue arrows along the plate boun dary show t he

direction o f subduction.

As t he India Plate slides beneath t he Burma P late, it me et s pocke ts of resistanc e, which cause s compression al force s to

build up. Weakened overlying rock get s forced upward. Based on t he location of aftershocks (red shaded circles on t he

image), the United Stat es Geological Survey reports that approximately 1,200 kilometers of the plate boundary probably

Earthquake SpawnsTsunamis

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slipped as a result of the quake. The initial rupture was likely more than 100 kilometers wide, and probably produced an

average vertical displacement along the fault plane (t he slope along which the tw o plates meet) of 15 meters.

Whe n the bo ttom of the o cean is deformed by this type of megathrust quake, the upw ard force acts like a fist

rising up from unde rwater. Wate r rolls down off th e sides of the fist, creat ing massive waves t hat can t ravel as fast

as an airplane. The w aves can move across the oce an and barely disturb the surface, but when they reach shallow

coastal water, the earthquakes energy thrusts them t ens of met ers into the air. The t sunami created by t his

earthquake reached India and Sri Lanka in about four hours. The wave eventually reached Africa, the Pacific Ocean,

Hawaii, and the west coast of North and South A merica.

For more information about this earthquake and plate t ectonics, visit t he Website o f the USGS.

Image courtesy United St ates Geological Survey

Instrument:

Seismograph

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