SYDNEY – The massive earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves across southeast Asia may have been triggered by a smaller quake last week off Australias island state of Tasmania, a seismologist said on Monday.
Geoscience Australia expert Cvetan Sinadinovski said the 8.1 magnitude quake that struck Thursday between Tasmania and Australias Macquarie Island in the southern Ocean was a precursor of Sundays 9.0 monster quake off Indonesia.
The two earthquakes occurred on opposite sides of the Indo-Australian plate in the Earths crust, Sinadinovski said.
It could be assumed that the earthquake on one side (of the plate) caused an unbalanced situation on the other one which eventuated into this huge earthquake, he said.
I would say that if the Tasmanian event didnt occur, the event of yesterday could have occurred in another time frame, he said.
