An earthquake in a maze: Highest-resolution observations yet of the complex 2012 Sumatra earthquake
Thursday, July 19, 2012 - 14:00
in Earth & Climate
The powerful magnitude-8.6 earthquake that shook Sumatra on April 11, 2012, was the largest strike-slip quake ever recorded. Now, as researchers report on their findings from the first high-resolution observations of the underwater temblor, they point out that the earthquake was also unusually complex -- rupturing along multiple faults that lie at nearly right angles to one another, as though racing through a maze.