- (IHT/Asahi) -- The March earthquake that struck near
Nias island off Sumatra was so powerful that it created about 10 new islands,
Japan's Geographical Survey Institute said.
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- Researchers, led by Mikio Tobita, spotted the new islets
on images taken by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite, GSI officials
said earlier this month.
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- The March 28 temblor had a magnitude of 8.7, but unlike
the Dec. 26 quake off Sumatra, it did not trigger killer tsunami.
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- GSI researchers said they compared images taken in February
with those from April. They found the seabed near the northwestern coast
of Nias island upheaved about 2 meters due to crustal movements caused
by the quake.
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- This created about 10 new islands ranging in length from
100 meters to 1.5 kilometers, they said.
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- The quake also pushed the northwestern coastline out
to sea by up to 1 km, they said.
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