An earthquake could one day strike the northern Bay of Bengal, triggering a tsunami and threatening at least a million people’s lives. This contradicts the prevailing idea that the region is relatively safe from such a threat.
Phil Cummins of Geoscience Australia in Canberra has reviewed GPS measurements and says the boundary between the Indian and south-east Asian tectonic plates does not cut through Burma, as previously thought, but probably lies up to 200 kilometres off the coast (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06088). This increases the quake risk because the plates are pushing harder against each other. Such a quake could…
