The Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of 26 December 2004

2005/05/19 by Thorne Lay, Hiroo Kanamori, Charles J. Ammon +11 · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #earthquake and tectonic studies #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Geological and Geophysical Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1112250

openalex publication_date 2005/05/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

The two largest earthquakes of the past 40 years ruptured a 1600-kilometer-long portion of the fault boundary between the Indo-Australian and southeastern Eurasian plates on 26 December 2004 [seismic moment magnitude (Mw) = 9.1 to 9.3] and 28 March 2005 (Mw = 8.6). The first event generated a tsunami that caused more than 283,000 deaths. Fault slip of up to 15 meters occurred near Banda Aceh, Sumatra, but to the north, along the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, rapid slip was much smaller. Tsunami and geodetic observations indicate that additional slow slip occurred in the north over a time scale of 50 minutes or longer.

Citations

• Seismic gaps and plate tectonics: Seismic potential for major boundaries
• Size of great earthquakes of 1837–1974 inferred from tsunami data
• The energy release in great earthquakes

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• Geophysical Characterisation of the Active Fault Geometry and Trends in Tectonic Deformation in the Shallow Stratigraphy along Active Faults, South Andaman, India
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