Recent Tectonic Activity
On December 26, 2004, a large portion of the boundary between the Burma Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate slipped, causing the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. This megathrust earthquake had a magnitude estimated by researchers to be between Mw9.0 and Mw9.3. Over 1600 km of the boundary underwent thrust faulting and shifted up to 5 meters vertically and 11 meters horizontally. This rise in the sea floor over such a short time (seven minutes) generated a massive tsunami that killed approximately 229,800 people along the coast of the Indian Ocean.
Read more about this topic: Burma Plate
Famous quotes containing the word activity:
“A worm is as good a traveler as a grasshopper or a cricket, and a much wiser settler. With all their activity these do not hop away from drought nor forward to summer. We do not avoid evil by fleeing before it, but by rising above or diving below its plane; as the worm escapes drought and frost by boring a few inches deeper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)