Earth Observatory of Singapore

The highly active Sumatran Subduction Zone has produced more than four great earthquakes in the last decade. The first of these was the giant Mw 9.2 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake that ruptured on 26 December 2004. This devastating event was followed by three others – the Mw 8.6 Nias-Simeulue quake in 2005, the Mw 8.4 Bengkulu earthquakes in 2007, and the Mw 7.7 Mentawai tsunami-earthquake in 2010.

“We scientists usually think we know everything,” said Dr Wang Yu, a Research Fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), “but when we go into the field, we start to realise that actually farmers have most of the important knowledge about the land, and that we are just visitors with lots to learn.”

Our multi-disciplinary project explores the paleotsunami record in northwestern Aceh Province, Sumatra. We are focusing on an extraordinary sedimentary deposit in a coastal limestone cave that contains a series of tsunami deposits separated by guano, and offer a nearly complete mid-Holocene record of tsunamis. Our investigations will be incorporated into tsunami hazard modelling and risk assessment along the western...

Home to more than 50 million people, Myanmar is shaped like a giant kite with a long tail that sweeps down along the Andaman Sea.

Beneath the surface, invisible dangers affect Myanmar’s growing population, making it one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. In the north, mountain ranges mark the northeast limit of the Indian tectonic plate, which has been colliding with the southern edge of the Eurasian plate for tens of millions of years. It is this interaction that has helped push...