[NetBehaviour] Satellite Data Reveals Gravity Change From Sumatran Earthquake.

[marc]

Satellite Data Reveals Gravity Change From Sumatran Earthquake.

Source: Ohio State University

For the first time, scientists have been able to use satellite data to 
detect the changes in the earth's surface caused by a massive earthquake.

The discovery, reported in the latest issue of the journal Science, 
signifies a new use for the data from NASA's two GRACE satellites and 
offers a possible new approach to understanding how earthquakes work.

The research paints a clearer picture of how the earth changed after the 
December, 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, the 9.1-magnitude temblor in 
the Indian Ocean which caused a deadly tsunami killing nearly 230,000 
and displacing more than 1 million people.

Centered off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the event followed the 
slipping of two continental plates along a massive fault under the sea 
floor. The slippage occurred along 750 miles of the line where the 
Indian plate slides under the Burma plate, a process called subduction. 
The quake raised the seafloor in the region by several meters for 
thousands of square miles.

“The earthquake changed the gravity in that part of the world in two 
ways that we were able to detect,” explained Shin-Chan Han, a research 
scientist in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State.

more...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060804135910.htm