Small plate movement caused killer quake

THE earthquake behind the tidal wave which swamped parts of Asia was caused by one of the plates which makes up the world’s surface moving a matter of metres, experts said yesterday.

Dr Roger Musson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said the fault line running under the Indian Ocean was 1,200km long, 500km wide, was in three sections, and that it had moved just 15 metres.

He explained: “It happened because of the fact that the whole of the Indian-Australian plate is moving northwards.