• journal_title：Geology
• Contributor：Miaki Ishii ; Eric Kiser ; Eric L. Geist
• Publisher：Geological Society of America
• Date：2013-03-01
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.1130/G33783.1
• journal_abbrev：Geology
• issn：0091-7613
• volume：41
• issue：3
• firstpage：319
• section：Articles

The magnitude 8.6 and 8.2 earthquakes off northwestern Sumatra on 11 April 2012 generated small tsunami waves that were recorded by stations around the Indian Ocean. Combining differential travel-time modeling of tsunami waves with results from back projection of seismic data reveals a complex source with a significant trench-parallel component. The oblique plate convergence indicates that ∼20–50 m of trench-parallel displacement could have accumulated since the last megathrust earthquake, only part of which has been taken up by the Great Sumatran fault. This suggests that the remaining trench-parallel motion was released during the magnitude 8.6 earthquake on 11 April 2012 within the subducting plate. The magnitude 8.6 earthquake is interpreted to be a result of oblique subduction as well as a reduction in normal stress due to the occurrence of the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004.