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On the Trail of the Great 2004 Andaman-Sumatra Earthquake: Seismotectonics and Regional Tsunami History from the Andaman-Nicobar Segment

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The Andaman Islands and Adjoining Offshore: Geology, Tectonics and Palaeoclimate

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Abstract

The 2004 earthquake on the Andaman-Sumatra trench provided an unprecedented opportunity to study the deformational mechanism in a subduction zone before, during and after a great plate boundary earthquake. It also gave an opportunity to map the coseismic changes during a great plate boundary-breaking earthquake as well as the effects of an unprecedented transoceanic tsunami. Multiple pieces of evidence obtained from the rupture zone and the distant sites of tsunami reach were used to identify older events. This paper reviews results of such studies that led to the identification of two previous events, dated at about 500 years and 1000 years B.P. In this paper, we also review the post-2004 intraplate seismicity in the Andaman and Nicobar segments and the associated mechanisms in terms of their state of stress before and after the great earthquake.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jyotiranjan Ray for the invitation to contribute this article. We are indebted to many of our collaborators including Anil Earnest, John Paul, S. Srinivasalu and Vanessa Andrade who have taken part in the work in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at various stages. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geodynamics Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, 560064, India

    C. P. Rajendran

  2. Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru, 560012, India

    Kusala Rajendran

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  1. C. P. Rajendran
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Correspondence to Kusala Rajendran .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geosciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    Jyotiranjan S. Ray

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    M. Radhakrishna

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Rajendran, C.P., Rajendran, K. (2020). On the Trail of the Great 2004 Andaman-Sumatra Earthquake: Seismotectonics and Regional Tsunami History from the Andaman-Nicobar Segment. In: Ray, J., Radhakrishna, M. (eds) The Andaman Islands and Adjoining Offshore: Geology, Tectonics and Palaeoclimate. Society of Earth Scientists Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39843-9_10

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