Rupture of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake inferred from direct P-wave imaging

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on December 26, 2004 is the first well recorded gigantic earthquake (moment magnitude MW 9.3) by modern broadband seismic and Global Positioning System networks. The rich seismic and geodetic recordings have documented unprecedented details about the earthquake rupture, coseismic and postseismic deformations. This is a report of detailed images of the rupture process using the first-arriving compressional waves recorded by the China National Digital Seismic Network (CNDSN). An improved imaging condition was employed to account for the sparse distribution of the CNDSN stations. The resulting images are consistent with the major rupture features reported by previous seismic and geodetic studies. It is found that the earthquake rupture initiated at offshore of northwestern Sumatra and propagated in the north northwest direction at a speed of 2.7 ± 0.2 km/s. The rupture continued for at least 420 s and extended about 1200-1300 km along the Andaman trough with two bursts of seismic energy.