Upon hearing of the massive quake and subsequent tsunami in Asia, i thought back only a few days to when i read of Macquarie Island in the Tasman being shook by another massive quake.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1307844/posts

I believe this is on the same plate as the asian quake but at the opposite end. The article i came across original explained that while the Macquarie Island quake was massive it would not produce a tsunami as the movement was horizontal rather than vertical.

Another interesting thing to point out was that the Macquarie Island quake had been preceeded by another large quake just one week earlier. Firstly thats a lot of tectonic activity for one plate in the course of two weeks. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, is there a chance of a second, and more devastating, quake at the north west of the plate to wreak further havoc in the asian region?

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Kolch - Crunching for the BOINC@Australia team since July 2004.
Search for your own intelligence...

Read of another large earthquake in very close proximity to the quake that cause the tsunami off Bandah Aceh.

Further information of the latest Sumatra quake is here:
http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/listQuakes

For a detailed map of all earthquakes occurring globally in the last 8-30 days:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

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Kolch - Crunching for the BOINC@Australia team since July 2004.
Search for your own intelligence...

I wouldn't be surprised, and I do think there's some science to it.

Think of it this way, any vibration's energy (in this case the force of the shaking) will expand outwards in all directions. When the medium (the Earth's mantle and core) ends, the wave will reflect back inwards.

It doesn't take all that long for a seismic shock to travel accross (or through) the planet. In fact, this propagation delay is what let us know about the core of the Earth.

That said, predicting where and when an earthquake will take place isn't as easy. When there's one, expect many, and in the usual places... but the first one to strike is almost purely random.

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If you haven't read Krakatoa you are missing a good read.

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Dave Nelson