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Geological Formations

Great Sumatran Fault

Structural and Tectonic Formations

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The Great Sumatran Fault, also known as the Semangko Fault, is a strike slip fault running the entire length of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, a distance estimated at between 1,650 and 1,900 kilometers. It accommodates the oblique convergence between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates, working alongside the offshore subduction zone off Sumatra's western coast, and runs north to a termination near Banda Aceh. The fault sits in one of the most seismically active regions on Earth and has produced repeated damaging earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.6 event in 1933, a 1943 doublet near Alahan Panjang measured at magnitude 7.2 to 7.5, a 1994 quake near Liwa that killed 207 people, and a 1995 Kerinci earthquake that killed more than 84.

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