Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2017, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (6): 62-70.doi: 10.11978/2016121CSTR: 32234.14.2016121

Special Issue: 海上丝绸之路专题

• 海洋地球物理学 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Review of tsunami caused by large earthquakes along the Sumatra and Makran subduction zones in the North Indian Ocean

Xu ZHAO1(), Min XU1(), Xin ZENG1, Jian LIN1,2   

  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA 02543, USA
  • Received:2016-11-18 Revised:2016-12-22 Online:2017-11-30 Published:2018-01-18
  • About author:

    Author:QIU Chunhua.E-mail: qiuchh3@mail. sysu.edu.cn

  • Supported by:
    CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program (Y6YB011001);National Natural Science Foundation of China (41676044, 91628301, U1606401);Chinese Academy of Sciences Project (QYZDY-SSW-DQC005, Y4SL021001)

Abstract:

The frequency of tsunamis occurred in the Indian Ocean is much lower than that of the Pacific Ocean; in the past fifteen years, however, three out of ten major tsunamis triggered by the earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean region. The Makran and the Sumatra subduction zones are the two active regions in the North Indian Ocean for tsunamigenic earthquakes. In the northern Sumatra subduction zone, two earthquakes with Mw 9.0 and 8.6 occurred on December 26, 2004 and March 28, 2005, respectively, and they were ranked as the second and fourth largest earthquakes in the past half century. The 2004 event generated a tsunami disaster with the largest wave runup of 50.9m, and resulted in the most devastating historical disaster, while the 2005 event only generated a maximum wave runup of 4m. What caused the completely different tsunami scenarios by the two earthquakes with similar location and focal mechanism is worthy of study. Recent studies showed that the seismic activities along the Makran subduction zone were divided into two neighboring sections: the seismic activity of the eastern section is significantly stronger than the western section, and the 1945 tsunami was located in this section. Whether the western section, or the whole Makran subduction zone has the potential to rupture together and thus generate major tsunamis requires further investigations.

Key words: North Indian Ocean, tsunami, earthquake, Makran subduction zone, Sumatra subduction zone, paleotsunami research

CLC Number: 

  • P738.4