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Deep sea in situ excess pore pressure and sediment deformation off NW Sumatra and its relation with the December 26, 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake

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Abstract

The swath bathymetric data acquired during the “Sumatra Aftershocks” cruise from the Sunda trench in the Indian Ocean to the north of the Sumatra Island imaged several scars and deposits. In situ pore pressure measurements using the Ifremer piezometer and coring demonstrate that high excess pore pressure and sediment deformation was generated by a recent event in the scar of the slope failure zone identified by J.T. Henstock and co-authors. This excess pore pressure is localized in the upper sedimentary layers and is not related to an interplate subduction process. Numerical simulations of the hydrological system that take into account the hydro-mechanical properties of the upper sediment layer show that the excess pore pressure and sediment deformations could be generated at the time of the December 26, 2004 Great Sumatra Earthquake.

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Acknowledgments

The “Sumatra Aftershocks” cruise was organized in collaboration between the Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer), the Institut Polaire Français - Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, Indonesia (BPPT). We thank Captain François Duchene and the crew of the R/V Marion Dufresne for their dedicated work during the MD149 “Sumatra Aftershocks” cruise, as well as the technical staff of the Institute Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV) led by B. Ollivier for their constant and precious help. Financial supports were provided by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the Délégation Inter-ministérielle pour le Tsunami (DIPT), Ifremer and IPEV. The authors are grateful to Tim Henstock, Giovanna Biscontin and Miquel Canals for their constructive comments.

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Correspondence to Nabil Sultan.

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The Sumatra Aftershocks team: J.-C. Sibuet, S. Singh, R. Apprioual, N.C. Aryanto, J. Begot, A. Cattaneo, A.P.S. Chauchan, R. Creach, J. Crozon, A. Domzig, N. Falleau, D. Graindorge, F. Harmegnies, Y. Haryadi, F. Klingelhoffer, S.K. Kolluru, J.-Y. Landuré, C. Le Lann, J. Malod, A. Normand, G. Oggian, C. Rangin, D. Restunin Galih, J.-L. Schneider, N. Sultan, M. Taufik, M. Umber and H. Yamaguchi.

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Sultan, N., Cattaneo, A., Sibuet, JC. et al. Deep sea in situ excess pore pressure and sediment deformation off NW Sumatra and its relation with the December 26, 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 98, 823–837 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0334-z

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