Were the causes the seismologists give for earthquakes obvious in recent South Asian earthquake?
113993
Yes. Earthquake activity in this region is due to plate tectonics. In Kashmir the two plates involved are the Eurasion and Indian tectonic plates. \n\nHere are a few good ways to demonstrate this for elementary school children:\n\n*Have them use their hands with thumbs hooked together and move push one hand forward while pulling one hand back. Force builds up, but when one of the thumbs breaks free both hands makes a big movement (earthquake).\n\n*make playdough "plates" and have slowly pushed together to see uplifting and subduction.\n\n*take model cars/trucks. Predict what would happen if they have met head-on and continue to move. Let cars represent oceanic plates (less dense) and trucks represent continental plates (more dense). This is a good visual to see uplifting (rumpled hoods when they are the same density--car/car or truck/truck) and subduction (truck runs over top of car).\n\nGreat website for kids is:\n\nhttp://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/kids.php?\n\nGreat website for kids with links to many science websites is:\n\nhttp://members.tripod.com/~ozpk/00000science1-4\n\nHope this helps!
873756
The Himalayan Mountains were/are still being created by compressional stresses between two different continental plates "colliding" together. This is also known as a convergent boundary.\n\nThe Indian plate is moving northward into the Eurasian plate. When two continental plates "collide" neither one will be subducted because both are of about the same density. Because of this, the Indian plate continually pushes into the Eurasian plate causing deformation of both crustal plates. The plates buckle from the pressure and stress being applied over such long periods of time and essentially they have no where to go but "up".\n\nNot to be disrespectful...but the San Andreas Fault is a transform or strike-slip fault where two blocks of rock slide horizontally past each other in opposite directions. There is no subduction taking place at all. Also, continental crust cannot be subducted under continental crust because they are of equal density.
730324
"The Word " ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS & SUMATRA " will be removed from the geographical area in another 10 million years since the eurasian plates are moving inch by inch .\n\nThe region where the great earthquake occurred on 26 December 2004, marks the seismic boundary formed by the movement of the Indo-Australian plate as it collides with the Burma subplate, which is part of the Eurasian plate. However, the Indo-Australian tectonic plate may not be as coherent as previously believed. According to recent studies reported in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters (vol 133), it apears that the two plates have separated many million years ago and that the Australian plate is rotating in a counterclockwise direction, putting stress in the southern segment of the India plate.\n\nFor millions of years the India tectonic plate has drifted and moved in a north/northeast direction, colliding with the Eurasian tectonic plate and forming the Himalayan mountains. As a result of such migration and collision with both the Eurasian and the Australian tectonic plates, the Indian plate's eastern boundary is a diffuse zone of seismicity and deformation, characterized by extensive faulting and numerous large earthquakes.\n\nThe epicenter of the 26 December 2004 earthquake was near the triple point junction of three tectonic plates where major earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred in the past.\n\nPrevious major earthquakes have occurred further north, in the Andaman Sea and further South along the Sumatra, Java and Sunda sections of one of the earth's greatest fault zones, a subduction zone known as the Sunda Trench. This great trench extends for about 3,400 miles (5,500 kms) from Myanmar (Burma) south past Sumatra and Java and east toward Australia and the Lesser Sunda Islands, ending up near Timor. Slippage and plate subduction make this region highly seismic. The volcanoes of Krakatau, Tambora and Toba, well known for their violent eruptions, are byproducts of such tectonic interactions.\n\nIn addition to the Sunda Trench, the Sumatra fault is responsible for seismic activity on the Island of Sumatra. This is a strike-slip type of fault which extends along the entire length of the island.\n\nThe Burma plate encompasses the northwest portion of the island of Sumatra as well as the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands, which separate the Andaman Sea from the Indian Ocean. Further to the east, a divergent boundary separates the Burma plate from the Sunda plate.\n\nMore specifically, in the region off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the India plate is moving in a northeastward direction at about 5 to 5.5 cm per year relative to the Burma plate.\n\nChronological Sequence of Major Aftershocks Along the West Coast of Northern Sumatra and in the Nicobar and Andaman Island Region Following the Major Earthquake om 26 December 2004\n\n\n MAGNITUDE   DATE  UTC-TIME  LATITUDE  LONGITUDE  DEPTH  REGION \n              \n 8.9  2004/12/26  00:58:51  3.298  95.779  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.9  2004/12/26  01:48:47  5.393  94.423  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:15:58  12.375  92.509  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.0  2004/12/26  02:22:02  8.83  92.532  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:34:50  4.104  94.184  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 5.8  2004/12/26  02:36:06  12.139  93.011  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.0  2004/12/26  02:51:59  12.511  92.592  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.9  2004/12/26  02:59:12  3.177  94.259  10.0 West Coast of Northern Sumatra \n 6.1  2004/12/26  03:08:42  13.808  92.974  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 7.3  2004/12/26  04:21:26  6.901  92.952  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 5.7  2004/12/26  06:21:58  10.623  92.323  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.7  2004/12/26  07:07:10  10.336  93.756  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 5.8  2004/12/26  07:38:25  13.119  93.051  10.0 Andaman Islands \n 6.5  2004/12/26  09:20:01  8.867  92.382  10.0  Nicobar Islands \n 6.2  2004/12/26  10:19:30  13.455  92.
905461
G'day bb,\n\nThank you for your question.\n\nThere are tsunami warning systems in place consisting of sensors to detect a tsunami and communications to warn those in harms way. A warning system has been in place since 1967 in the Pacific.\n\nUnfortunately, a similar system wasn't put in place in the Indian Ocean until after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 with moves now being made to set up such a system. No system can help if the earthquake causing the tsunami occurs just offshore as in the Hokkaido tsunami of 1993 when the tsunami hit no more than five minutes after the earthquake\n\nI have attached sources for your reference.\n\nRegards
1056316
It is caused by the movement of large plates on the earth's crust.  When these plates move into each other it causes a collision, which basicallly push them together - hence the reason for all the Mountains out west - 2 plates pushed together caused the ends to go up...hence mountains...but when these plates move you get the shaking, thus causing an earthquake.
830892
There are literally hundreds of earthquakes every day.  Thankfully most are small.\n\nSome faults are well documented and a loose prediction that they will slip sometime in the near to middle future can be made but with very little accuracy.
1176166
one cannot predict earthquakes, but due to the behavorial changes or sounds made by birds or other animals we can just become aware and alert about the possibility of an earthquake. also if some underground animals start coming out of their holes it means an earthquake can occur because they have very good sensing organs and can sense the frequencies matching that of an earthquake.
678582
www.seismology.harvard.edu/\n\nConsult the above link, textbooks will be helpful.
416466
Patterns of seismic activity along a fault line.\n\nScientists set up seismographs to measure this activity. Movement along faultlines is not uncommon. But we do not usually feel it b/c it is not strong enough. They, however, can detect these slight movements w/ their sensitive equipment.\n\nThere are some other signs as well. An increase in geologic activity near a faultline can give clues. Uplifting of land is one. Increases in geothermal activity may be another.
742010
Earthquakes: \nIt all comes down to stress and strain from the interaction of different plates, chiefly at the boundaries. It is not 'the plates rubbing together' as many people say; or at least that's a very simplistic view.\n\nPlate tectonics causes stress on the continents and oceans, all over the surface of the earth. In some places, the stress is very small (usually within the plates). Elsewhere, the stress is high, usually where the plates meet each other. Since each plate moves, when two come in contact, the stress each other. They can push on each other and cause compressional stress, they can pull with extensional stress, and they can slide past or shear each other with tensional stress.\n\nFaulting, causing earthquakes, comes from the fact that this stress is building up all the time, but rocks and continents are strong materials. Just like hitting a rock with a small hammer, you do put stress on it, but a small amount. It would take a sledgehammer to put enough strain (effects and accumulation of stress) to build up and cause breakage. In the earth, the area around an active fault builds up strain from the stress of plate tectonics. Most faults become locked, because of this strength, and thus can not release their strain. Away from the fault, the stress produces very small and slow movement of the rock masses as a whole. Eventually, the strain is too much and the rest of the plate has moved too far and the fault releases the strain build-up all at once in a big stress release called an earthquake. This is called the elastic rebound theory, and it explains most (but not all) movements.\n\nThis is why an earthquake's size is relative to the fault size. The bigger the fault, the bigger the strain build up, and the bigger the release in an earthquake. Subduction zones and collision zones, where large portions of plates actually can rub together as a whole, have the really big earthquakes, like the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. In other plate boundaries, the entire plate boundary does not act together, so the faults become spread out and many faults take up the strain from the tectonic stress, like with the San Andreas Fault in California (it only takes up ~3/4 of the stress between the plates).\n\nEarthquakes are really tricky things; there is still so much we need to learn. As of now, there is no way to predict them, but we can say where the danger is highest and about how long between events.
1089394
earthquakes occur when the tectonic plates that cover the earth noticably shift. These movements can also form volcanoes and trenches
754417
a sudden break in the rocks of Earth because of being stressed .. at depths range from the earth surface to 720 km .. this releases kinetic energy which spreads in every direction as seismic waves wich cause the vibration of the molecules of the meduims they move through !!!
127553
Earthquakes are caused by the shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates. We don't get earthquakes like the West coast here on the east coast because there simply isn't as much shifting.
475416
Nope; the oceanic plates are spreading apart, as new material (magma) is pushed up from below.  They are not crashing together at all.
558177
i think the other axis is time? seismogrpah measures seismic waves and earthquakes.
1181883
Kumaun Himalayas are very much prone.The recent earthquakes in J&K have demonstrated it once again.It was thought for a long time that there would be NO earthquakes in Deccan Trap region of India.But Latur & Gujrat earthquakes have proven it wrong.Also Tsunami activities were thought to be on Pacific Coast.But the destructions of 26th Dec 2005 proved that India's East coast can also be vulnerable.
630137
Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?\n\nWe continue to be asked by many people throughout the world if earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant. \n\nA partial explanation may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more that 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate earthquakes more rapidly and to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years. The NEIC now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in the environment and natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes. \n\nAccording to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year.