Narrator: This is Science Today. Research data from the undersea fault rupture that caused the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004, which led to the devastating tsunami, suggests that previous ideas about where large earthquakes are likely to occur need to be revised. Research geodesist Yehuda Bock of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography was part of a scientific team studying that fault rupture.

Bock: The 2004 earthquake was in a location that had not previously ruptured – has not been known to produce great earthquakes. So, the conventional wisdom is that because the plate motion is rather small compared to other subduction zones, it's thought that regions that have moderate plate velocity are not prone to great earthquakes. And so this event basically undermined that whole conventional wisdom. I think the main results from our research is that any subduction zone is a candidate for a great earthquake.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.