TERRA.WIRE
Asia's deadly December quake stronger than first calculated: report
 WASHINGTON (AFP) May 21, 2005
 The devastating December 26 earthquake that rocked the Indian Ocean and unleashed a tsunami that killed nearly 300,000 people was even stronger than officials initially believed, measuring 9.15 on the Richter scale instead of the initial calculation of 9, according to new studies published in the journal Science Friday.

The quake was the world's fourth largest since 1900.

Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in India and the United States Geological Survey also found that the earthquake was slower than first thought.

"The earthquake lasted at least an hour and perhaps up to three hours, with much of the deformation happening more than one hour after the main shock," said Roland Buergmann, professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley.

"Normally, we see deformation of the surface a few hundred kilometers away, but here we see deformation 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) away, and five or six times the deformation we've seen in previous quakes," he said.

More than six months later, said Buergmann, "the Earth is still ringing like a bell."

In another article in Science, Roger Bilham, a University of Colorado seismologist, said that investigating the December quake will allow scientists to "learn numerous new things about our planet, and in particular about the Pacific Northwest, where a similar earthquake could occur at any time."