PASADENA, Calif., March 6 (UPI) -- The giant earthquake of Dec. 26, 2004, was one of Earth's worst natural disasters -- and the Asian tsunami it produced may change giant earthquake theory.
Scientists say they have discovered that regions of the Earth previously thought to be immune to such events may actually be at high risk of experiencing them.
"This earthquake didn't just break all the records, it also broke some of the rules," says scientist Kerry Sieh of the California Institute of Technology, an author of the report.
The researchers say the 2004 disaster was so much larger than any previously known rupture scientists might need to reassess many areas that were previously thought to be at low risk.
For example, "The Ryukyu Islands between Taiwan and Japan are in an area where a large rupture would probably cause a tsunami that would kill a lot of people along the Chinese coast," said Sieh. "And in the Caribbean, it could well be an error to assume that the entire subduction zone from Trinidad to Barbados and Puerto Rico is not seismic."
The research is reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
