An April earthquake near the island of Sumatra resulted from as many as five faults in the tectonic plate that serves as the floor of the Indian Ocean, according to researchers that say the geologic event may show the massive slab of rock is splitting into two. A fault is a fracture that can push upward causing mountains, downward causing oceans or even side-to-side as the tectonic plate floats on a lower layer of molten rock. In the past, scientists didn’t know that a series of faults could act in concert, in this case sliding sideways, spurring a dangerous 8.7 magnitude quake, but no tsunami, the wall of ocean water that can result from such an occurrence.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-26/sumatra-quake-in-april-tied-to-sea-floor-changes
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