There will be bigger tsunamis in Sumatra

The area at risk of tsunamis is moving from the north to the south

An American scientist studying the islands off South Sumatra, Indonesia, said there was clear evidence that the region could continue to experience larger earthquakes and tsunamis in the decades. next century.

Professor Kerry Sieh is using the global positioning network to monitor the movement of the ground near the major fault - the fracture caused a shocking event last December.

His work shows that there is still enormous tension accumulated in this fault, and it can be released in the near future. Kerry Sieh believes that Pedang and Bengkulu cities may be the most dangerous.

" Time is now fading away such events, " said Kerry Sieh, working at the Learning Observatory, California Institute of Technology.

" I'm not sure if that is happening, but our team still tells the people living on the coast that they have to think of such tsunamis that will appear in the lives of their descendants. " .

The earthquake on December 26 last year had a magnitude of 9.2 on the richter scale from a fault along the boundary between the two plates of Indian - Australian and European - Asian lithosphere, which was crushed on the other plate. Its resulting tsunami caused devastating devastation throughout the Bay of Bengal, from North Sumatra to Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

The model predicts that waves of up to 10 meters will enter two Indonesian cities on Sumatra island, Pedang and Bengkulu.

Next was the magnitude 8.7 earthquake, which occurred in March 2005, further south than the previous earthquake, but on the same boundary line.

Sieh said scientists' concerns now focus on further events to the south, to the Mentawai Islands. It used to happen that big earthquakes happened every two centuries, and this time is the end of that earthquake cycle.

Professor Stephan Grilli, from the University of Rhode Island, modeled the tsunami that would take place in the region with a 9.2-magnitude earthquake, equivalent to the battle that took place on December 26.

" Our prediction for Pedang and Bengkulu to the south is that waves up to 10 meters high will hit these cities ."

Both Pedang and Bengkulu are larger cities than Banda Aceh - the city was destroyed in the tsunami on December 26 last year. Like Banda Aceh, Pedang is a city very low on the beach.