The massive Sumatra earthquake last December 26 which sent deadly tsunami waves through the Indian Ocean also touched off large waves that went as far as Peru and northeast Canada, according to a scientific study published Thursday.
Besides the huge waves that smashed coastlines from Indonesia to India, killing more than 217,000 people, the quake also produced less damaging tsunami that struck far-flung areas one day later in the Atlantic Ocean and around Antarctica, according to the study in Science magazine.
Researcher Vasily Titov and colleagues at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington said their research offered evidence of how local earthquakes can generate effects worldwide.
The researchers used ocean models and tidal gauges to demonstrate that the tsunami generated by the earthquake travelled around the globe several times before they dissipated.
The waves' directions were guided by ridges in the middle of the oceans, according to the study. Subsea topography also helped to determine levels of energy in the tsunami.
The researchers also discovered that significant quake-generated tsunami waves travelled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America. These waves were as strong as those which moved from the Indian Ocean into the Pacific, they said.
