ABSTRACT
The Sumatra earthquake (Mw9.3) with its epicenter located southwest of Sumatra island (3.7◦N, 95◦E) occurred at the interface of the Indian and Burmese plates, where the former subducts beneath the Burmese plate all along the Andaman-Sumatra-Sunda Arc (McCloskey et al., 2005; Sieh, 2005; Gupta, 2005; Satish Singh, 2005). It is the Fifth largest earthquake since 1990 and the largest since the 1964 Alaska earthquake. In this region the Indian plate moves towards northeast at the rate of 6 cm/year relative to the Burmese plate which results in an oblique convergence at the Sunda trench. The oblique motion is partitioned into thrust faulting and strike-slip faulting which occurs at the plate interface. The 26 December earthquake was the result of such thrust faulting (Radhakrishna, 2005).
