Lessons Learned from the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Megathrust Rupture

The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake has been extensively studied because of its great size and devastating consequences. Large amounts of high-quality seismic, geodetic, and geologic data have led to a number of proposed models for its length, duration, fault geometry, rupture velocity, and slip history. The latest of these models vary in their details but now largely agree in their large-scale features, which include significant coseismic slip along the entire 1300- to 1500-km rupture, the bulk of which occurred fast enough to radiate seismic waves. The earthquake's enormous size has challenged conventional processing approaches and stimulated the development of new analysis and inversion methods, including multiple-source inversions, high-frequency body-wave imaging, and satellite observations of tsunami heights and gravity changes. The Sumatra megathrust earthquake was the largest in 40 years and is by far the best documented, but it does not seem fundamentally different in its properties from other large subduction-zone earthquakes.