Tsunami 'unzipped' 620-mile rent

[emad]

July 14, 2005

By Mark Henderson

The earthquake that triggered the Boxing Day tsunami tore a rent of unprecedented size in the Earth’s crust, scientific analysis has revealed.

The second-largest earthquake on record opened a rupture of at least 620 miles (1,000km) along the Sumatra-Andaman fault. The fault line “unzipped” itself extremely rapidly, with the tear taking fewer than ten minutes to develop after the initial seismic event.

A vehicle moving the same distance in this time would have to travel at more than 3,500mph.

The new details about the earthquake, which is now thought to have measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, have emerged from a French study, published today in the journal Nature, which used global positioning system (GPS) satellite data to track its progress.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1693554,00.html

[donsu]

1. wow - thanks for the report

nt