* Astronomy

Big Quake was Part Crustal Plate Breakup

Seismologists have known for years that the Indo-Australian plate of Earth's crust is slowly breaking apart, but they saw it in action last April when at least four faults broke in a magnitude-8.7 earthquake that may be the largest of its type ever recorded.
The great Indian Ocean quake of April 11, 2012 previously was reported as 8.6 magnitude, and the new estimate means the quake was 40 percent larger than had been believed, scientists from the University of Utah and University of California, Santa Cruz, report in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature.
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Caltech researchers provide highest-resolution observations yet of the complex 2012 Sumatra earthquake

The powerful magnitude-8.6 earthquake that shook Sumatra on April 11, 2012, was a seismic standout for many reasons, not the least of which is that it was larger than scientists thought an earthquake of its type - an intraplate strike-slip quake - could ever be. Now, as Caltech researchers report on their findings from the first high-resolution observations of the underwater temblor, they point out that the earthquake was also unusually complex - rupturing along multiple faults that lie at nearly right angles to one another, as though racing through a maze.
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A strong magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurred at 05:57:38 (UTC) on Sunday, April 15, 2012, off the west coast of the Sumatra region, 651 km WSW of Banda Aceh, at a Depth of 15.2 km.

Location 2.549°N, 90.277°E

Aceh earthquakes trigger Indian Ocean tsunami alert

An Indian Ocean tsunami alert is in place after two huge quakes off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province.
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