DEC26 QUAKE UPGRADED TO BIGGEST EVER RECORDED

Temblor big enough to 'vibrate the whole planet '


Aceh coast near SAWANG village where one woman and three children survived - none of them related to each other or to the 50 fishermen who were in deep water and returned to find their families gone without trace. This is all that was left of a thriving community. image by Jason Childs copyright

By Marsha Walton
CNN Thursday, May 19, 2005 Posted: 1953 GMT (0353 HKT) click this links for the full story

SPECIAL REPORT
(CNN) -- Dramatic new data from the December 26, 2004, Sumatran-Andaman earthquake that generated deadly tsunamis show the event created the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting ever observed, according to three reports by an international group of seismologists published Thursday in the journal "Science."

"Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds (at least 10 minutes)," said Charles Ammon, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

The quake released an amount of energy equal to a 100 gigaton bomb, according to Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado.

ANIMATION