Originally scientists believed that one earthquake had set off the deadly tsunami that struck Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga in September of 2009. But twostudies to appear tomorrow in Nature argue that instead of one there were really two earthquakes that took place in rapid succession.
For some scientists, the studies clear up odd behavior that didn't fit with the originally blamed "normal-fault" earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.
“We knew right off the bat that something was weird about this earthquake,” says geophysicist Eric Geist of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. Geist wasn’t involved in the current studies but has puzzled over the anomalous signs produced by the quake. “This is a very complicated event, and these studies, for me, really helped explain a lot.” [Science News]
John Beaven, lead author of one of the studies, toldNature News the researchers expected the Tongan island to move about ...
