Earthquake Supercycles Inferred from Sea-Level Changes Recorded in the Corals of West Sumatra

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Authors

K. Sieh · California Institute of Technology

D. H. Natawidjaja · California Institute of Technology

A. J. Meltzner · Indonesian Institute of Sciences

Chuan‐Chou Shen · University of Minnesota

Hai Cheng · University of Minnesota

Kuei-Shu Li · Indonesian Institute of Sciences

Bambang W. Suwargadi

Abstract

Records of relative sea-level change extracted from corals of the Mentawai islands, Sumatra, imply that this 700-kilometer-long section of the Sunda megathrust has generated broadly similar sequences of great earthquakes about every two centuries for at least the past 700 years. The moment magnitude 8.4 earthquake of September 2007 represents the first in a series of large partial failures of the Mentawai section that will probably be completed within the next several decades.

Topics & Keywords

Geological and Geophysical Studies earthquake and tectonic studies High-pressure geophysics and materials

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Life below water

Publication Details

Published in: Science

Volume 322, Issue 5908, pp. 1674-1678

DOI: 10.1126/science.1163589

Field-Weighted Citation Impact: 63.17