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| | The Why Files | 3. Epochal Indian Ocean quake |
 | | The Sunda Fault, which divides the Burma and Indian plates, was known to be accumulating strain, says Thorne Lay, of the earth sciences department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. |
 | | The Sumatra earthquake is now estimated at magnitude 9.0 to 9.3, but because magnitude is measured on a logarithmic scale, it was several times weaker than the monster that shook Chile in 1960, with an estimated magnitude of 9.5. |
 | | One can imagine all of the plate boundary along South American rupturing in a single, magnitude 9.8 to 10 earthquake, but it is extremely unlikely that the whole length would be ready to go at once." Eventually, the rupture will reach a section of fault where a recent earthquake has reduced the stress. |
| whyfiles.org /094quake/index.php?g=3.txt (792 words) |
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