The Wave That Shook The World – December 26, 2004

The Wave That Shook The World – December 26, 2004 (NOVA) Discussion 5 points

The rupture occurred at a depth of 30 km and the fault line broke along a 1200 km stretch of the sea floor. There was 10-20 meters of displacement along this thrust fault, a type of low angle reverse fault that dips about 10 degrees to the NE. The shaking lasted about 4 minutes.

Draw a cross-section showing the India-Australian plate subducting beneath the Burma- Sundra plate of Indonesia. This image will show up again in the movie if you don’t get it all the first time.

What kind of stress was involved with this earthquake? tension, shear, or compression

Since this area had not experienced a quake of this magnitude in over 100 years, was this an example of fault creep or stick-slip movement?

Approximately how long does it take seismic waves to travel through and around the world?

The tsunami that was produced is similar to what type of seismic wave? P, S, or L Some coastlines close to the epicenter were not as severely damaged as others at a similar distance from the epicenter. What was different?

How did the quake affect the Earth as a whole object?

Should we consider this earthquake to be an anomaly, a freak occurrence? Why or why not?