National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Indonesia Fault Line Quakes Nearly 20 Times This Month


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February 22, 2008—A usually active fault line—pictured in this map showing historic seismic activity since 1990—has been unusually active lately, triggering nearly 20 earthquakes off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, this month alone.

In this map, the size of the dots illustrates the magnitude of the quakes—most are magnitude 6 or smaller—and the color indicates depth.

Scientists say another massive temblor sometime in the next hundred years or so is likely, but they cannot predict exactly when that will occur.

Map courtesy the U.S. Geological Survey