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Seismic evidence for broken oceanic crust in the 2004 Sumatra earthquake epicentral region

Nature Geoscience volume 1, pages 777–781 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The great Sumatra earthquake of 26 December 2004 was the third largest event to occur in a subduction zone in the past 50 years. The rupture initiated at 30–40 km depth northwest of Simeulue Island1 and propagated for ∼1,300 km to the northern Andaman Islands2. The earthquake was caused by sudden slip along the plate interface between the subducting Indo-Australian plate and the overriding Sunda plate3,4. Although detailed knowledge of the structure of the subduction interface is important to define potential sources of large megathrust earthquakes, available data5,6,7,8 have not provided such information so far. Here we present a high-quality seismic section of the focal region, from the abyssal plain down to 40 km depth below the fore-arc. The seismic data reveal that the subducting crust and oceanic Moho—the crust–mantle boundary—are broken and displaced by landward-dipping thrust ramps, suggesting that the megathrust now lies in the oceanic mantle. We image active thrust faults at the front of the accretionary wedge, consistent with thrust aftershocks on steeply dipping planes. Our observations imply that very strong coupling leading to brittle failure of mantle rocks accounts for the initiation of such an exceptionally large earthquake.

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Figure 1: Study area.
Figure 2: Seismic profile WG1.
Figure 3: Detailed seismic images.
Figure 4: Schematic depth cross-section at 1:1 scale.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Schlumberger for its overall support and contribution to this project, and in particular, we recognize the efforts made by the captain and crew of the WesternGeco Q-Marine vessel, Geco Searcher. J.-P. Montagner and J. Ludden provided constant support for the Sumatra–Andaman Great Earthquake Research (SAGER) initiative. Agence National de la Recherche (France) and IPG Paris financially supported the participation of scientists in the survey. This is a collaborative project between the Government of Indonesia (BPPT & LIPI), Schlumberger (WesternGeco) and the Institut de Physique du Globe (IPG) de Paris. We thank R. Engdahl for providing aftershock relocations. Comments by D. Scholl helped improve the manuscript. This is IPGP contribution number 2432.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe de Géosciences Marines, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France

    Satish C. Singh, Hélène Carton, Nugroho D. Hananto & Ajay P. S. Chauhan

  2. Equipe de Tectonique et Mécanique de la lithosphère, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France

    Paul Tapponnier

  3. Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), Jl. MH Thamrin 8, Jakarta 10340, Indonesia

    Djoko Hartoyo

  4. WesternGeco ASA Region, Capital Centre, No. 256 St George Terrace, Perth, WA 6000, Australia

    Martin Bayly

  5. WesternGeco, Sentra Mulia, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. X-6 No.8, Jakarta 12940, Indonesia

    Soelistijani Moeljopranoto

  6. WesternGeco, Rohas Perkasa No. 8 Jalan Perak, Kuala-Lumpur 50450, Malaysia

    Tim Bunting

  7. Schlumberger Cambridge Research, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OEL, UK

    Phil Christie

  8. WesternGeco, Gatwick Airport, RH6 0NZ, UK

    Hasbi Lubis & James Martin

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  1. Satish C. Singh
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Correspondence to Satish C. Singh.

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Singh, S., Carton, H., Tapponnier, P. et al. Seismic evidence for broken oceanic crust in the 2004 Sumatra earthquake epicentral region. Nature Geosci 1, 777–781 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo336

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