30-07-2025
Why did Russian mega earthquake not cause more tsunami damage?
Another important element is the development of early warning systems.
Due to the high occurrence of earthquakes in the Pacific region, many countries have tsunami centres. They send out warnings via public announcements for populations to evacuate.
No such system was in place when the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami occurred - leaving many people without time to evacuate.
More than 230,000 people died across 14 countries in the Indian Ocean.
Early warning systems are important because of the limited ability of scientists to predict when an earthquake will occur.
The US Geological Survey recorded an earthquake measuring 7.4 in the same region ten days before.
This may have been a foreshock - an early release of energy - but it is not a predictor of exact timing of a future earthquake, explained Prof McNeill.
"Although we can use how fast the plates are moving, GPS to measure current movements and when previous earthquakes occurred, we can only use this information to make forecasts of probability of an earthquake," she said.
The Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GS RAS) will continue to monitor the region as it anticipates aftershocks could continue for the next month.
