Pleistocene Accelerated Exhumation Within the Sumatran Fault: Implications for Late Cenozoic Evolution of Sumatra (Indonesia)

Abstract

Oblique subduction of the Indo-Australian plate below the Sunda continental crust generated one of the most striking subduction zones in the world, which extends >5,000 km from Myanmar (NW) to Sumba Island (SE; Figure 1a). This plate boundary produces numerous major destructive earthquakes, including the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (Mw 9.1-9.3;Ammon et al., 2005). The 1900-km-long Sumatran fault traverses Sumatra (Indonesia) and runs parallel to the Sumatra Trench in the central part of the Sunda subduction zone (Figure 1b;