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Published February 15, 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

Uplift and subsidence associated with the great Aceh-Andaman earthquake of 2004

Abstract

Rupture of the Sunda megathrust on 26 December 2004 produced broad regions of uplift and subsidence. We define the pivot line separating these regions as a first step in defining the lateral extent and the downdip limit of rupture during that great M_w ≈ 9.2 earthquake. In the region of the Andaman and Nicobar islands we rely exclusively on the interpretation of satellite imagery and a tidal model. At the southern limit of the great rupture we rely principally on field measurements of emerged coral microatolls. Uplift extends from the middle of Simeulue Island, Sumatra, at ~2.5°N, to Preparis Island, Myanmar (Burma), at ~14.9°N. Thus the rupture is ~1600 km long. The distance from the pivot line to the trench varies appreciably. The northern and western Andaman Islands rose, whereas the southern and eastern portion of the islands subsided. The Nicobar Islands and the west coast of Aceh province, Sumatra, subsided. Tilt at the southern end of the rupture is steep; the distance from 1.5 m of uplift to the pivot line is just 60 km. Our method of using satellite imagery to recognize changes in elevation relative to sea surface height and of using a tidal model to place quantitative bounds on coseismic uplift or subsidence is a novel approach that can be adapted to other forms of remote sensing and can be applied to other subduction zones in tropical regions.

Additional Information

© 2006 American Geophysical Union. Received 20 June 2005; revised 5 October 2005; accepted 22 November 2005; published 15 February 2006. We thank Mohamed Chlieh, Chen Ji, Rich Briggs, and Rob McCaffrey for assistance and many insightful discussions. We are grateful to John Galetzka, Imam Suprihanto, and Bambang Suwargadi for data collection and invaluable field support in Indonesia and to Hidayat and Samsir of Derazona Air Services, our helicopter pilot and mechanic. We are very appreciative of Chris Goldfinger for collecting and sharing satellite imagery and of Roger Bilham for sharing data and making his manuscripts available to us, which benefited us tremendously. We thank JoAnne Giberson and Shaun Healy for ongoing GIS support. We also thank Vineet Gahalaut, Roger Bilham, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful reviews that led to substantial improvements in the paper. We acknowledge the use of QuickBird imagery made freely available by DigitalGlobe, and the use of IKONOS and SPOT 5 images acquired, processed, and made freely available by CRISP, National University of Singapore. This research was supported in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and by NASA grant NAG5-10406. This is Caltech Tectonic Observatory contribution 23.

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Created:
August 22, 2023
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October 20, 2023