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:
“With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)