The devastating earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in December literally moved some parts of Thailand.
Findings released this week show the power of the earthquake that killed tens of thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand and sent a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that was felt as far as Africa.
The island of Phuket, the most devastated area in Thailand, shifted 32 centimeters to the south-west and the country's capital, Bangkok, moved nine centimeters as a result of the earthquake that led to the tsunami two months ago, a Chulalongkorn University lecturer said.
Dr Itthi Trisirisattayawong, head of the Faculty of Engineering's Survey Engineering Department, said the positions of Phuket and Bangkok were measured and compared with data recorded in October and the measurements were carried out with global positioning system receivers installed at Phuket's Promthep Cape and at the Faculty of Engineering.
The land position measurements were carried out as part of the Southeast Asia Mastering Environment Research with Geodetic and Space Techniques (Seamerges) project with the cooperation of Asean and the EU. The project began on January 19 last year.
Studies were first carried out in two locations after the earthquake and lead to the latest findings.
Now that they know the two locations actually moved, scientists will move to collect data at six other locations Uttaradit, Uthai Thani, Si Sa Ket and Chumphon to get a better picture of the effects of the quake on land positions, he said.
The movement of land would have no effect on the general population, but it would have technical repercussions on certain agencies, such as the Royal Military Survey Department, he said. The survey team took three weeks to measure the two locations.
They had to use high-precision GPS receivers that could detect minute shifts over large areas.
The data then had to be analysed by software from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Nasa, in the United States.
(China Daily February 25, 2005)
