Largest tremor that shook the Andaman-Sumatra region in 2012 may be resulting in a plate boundary on the Indian Ocean floor.
This is according to scientists who warn that the new fault system could trigger more quakes in the future.
Evidence of a possible new plate boundary forming on the floor of the Indian Ocean in the Wharton Basin has been found.
A slip-strike quake occurs when two plates slide horizontally against one another.
Such quakes can be caused by deformations that occur in plates distant from fault lines as pressure builds up across a plate.
They can lead to inter-plate earthquakes and cause a plate to break, resulting in a new boundary and this in turn can lead to even more quakes.
It is this scenario that the researchers believe happened in 2012 when two earthquakes struck the Andaman-Sumatran region (north-west part) of the Indian Ocean - the largest inter-plate earthquakes ever recorded.
Data also proved the plate had broken along a 1,000 km fracture zone, resulting in a new plate boundary - one that is likely to be the site of future fault-slip quakes.
Know More About Wharton Basin- Wharton Basin is the marine area of the north east quarter of the Indian Ocean.
- It is named after William Wharton (1843-1905), Hydrographer of the Navy.
- Alternative names are Cocos Basin (after the Cocos Islands) and West Australian Basin.
- It lies east of the Ninety East Ridge and west of Western Australia.
- It features a mix of Indian and Australian plates and has not been charted since 1960s.
