Geophysics: The size and duration of the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake from far-field static offsets

Abstract

The 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake produced static offsets at continuously operating GPS stations at distances of up to 4500 kilometers from the epicenter. We used these displacements to model the earthquake and include consideration of the Earth's shape and depth-varying rigidity. The results imply that the average slip was >5 meters along the full length of the rupture, including the ∼650-kilometer-long Andaman segment. Comparison of the source derived from the far-field static offsets with seismically derived estimates suggests that 25 to 35% of the total moment release occurred at periods greater than 1 hour. Taking into consideration the strong dip dependence of moment estimates, the magnitude of the earthquake did not exceed Mw = 9.2.