The Royal Navy's HMS Scott will take sonar readings off the Indonesian island of Sumatra to try to find out how the December 26 earthquake unfolded and then produced the giant waves, officials and scientists said.

"This is the core foundation block for lots of other science which will ultimately build up to having direct relevance to the average man in the street, particularly in the area," British geophysicist Justin Dix told AFP.

The HMS Scott, which will begin work in two or three days, will provide "high-resolution images" from the quake's epicentre of its impact, leaving it to other scientists to determine how this produced the tsunami that hit 11 countries, he said.

Dix said it was the first time the Scott was being used for a non-military purpose after the defense ministry approached Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) to join the study.

Dix added that two of his colleagues from the SOC and another scientist from the BGS had boarded the HMS Scott for the assignment, which the defence ministry said had been authorised by Indonesian authorities.

The depth of the water in the area of the epicenter varies between 200 and 5,000 meters (670 and 16,700 feet), all of which is within the HMS Scott's capability, Dix said.

The assignment could last several weeks, an SOC spokesperson said.

Because of technological advances in the last 30 years, it will be the first time that scientists can map the ocean floor so soon after a major earthquake, Dix added.

"What that means is there's not been 30 years of sedimentation and erosion. We could hopefully get a fresher look at the rupture zone, the actual parts of the seabed that actually fractured," he said.

The readings will provide the dimensions of the rupture zone and show what the surface of the floor looks like.

The study will complement research by the California Institute of Technology in the United States, which has put together models on how the earth and seabed will have moved following the quake, Dix said.

"To a certain extent we're using their models to guide us to the parts of the rupture zone that they think has moved the most," he said.

Dix said Japanese researchers may also be on their way to conduct studies in the region, but that he had no details.

The epicenter of the quake, which measured a massive 9.0 on the Richter scale, lies within the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone.

The survey will fall under the definition of Marine Scientific Research under United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea.

HMS Scott sailed from Plymouth's Devonport Naval Base in November last year in order to undertake a program of military-based data gathering in the North Atlantic, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

The Scott's mission follows post-tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka carried out by the Royal Navy's HMS Chatham and RFA Diligence, the defense ministry said.

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