This animation shows why this south-to-north rupture is important for understanding the behavior of this tsunami, and why such “progressive” rupture needs to be considered for future tsunami forecasting. If the earthquake had moved the fault along its entire length all-at-once it would have sent the largest tsunami waves perpendicular to the fault and so they would have passed south of Sri Lanka. The earthquake motion, however, started in the south and moved northward along the fault so the tsunami began radiating from near Sumatra before it could be generated near Myanmar, thus causing the largest tsunami waves to move in a different direction such that they strike Sri Lanka and Somalia directly, consistent with the tsunami waves actually observed in those countries. Credits: NOAA
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Population and Economic Issues 2004 Tsunami Caught On Camera →Comments are closed.