Hinweisschilder und Karten markieren die Evakuierungswege in Indonesien.
Übersichtskarte Indonesien.
Funktionsschema und Sensorsysteme
Signs and maps indicating escape routes in Indonesia. (Photo: H. Letz/GFZ)
The Sunda trench runs west of Indonesia off Sumatra and Java and marks the boundary between the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate. Earthquakes occur almost every day in this region. The epicenter of the strong quake on December 26th, 2004 is marked in red. (Map: Wissensplattform eskp.de, Licence: CC BY 4.0)
Schematic sketch of the different sensor systems of the tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. (Illustration: GFZ)

OnDecember 26th in 2004 at07:58local time (00:58world time UTC)a strongearthquakeofmagnitudeMw 9.3 occurred offthecoast of IndonesiaintheIndian Ocean. Withina fewminutes the ocean floor rupturedoveradistanceof1,200km. This iscomparabletothedistancefromFrankfurt/Main(Germany) toRome (Italy).

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