[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They are reporting that the quake ripped a 1000 kilometer hole

Now how do they know that?

Reporters at work......

[stlnative]

Ring of Fire

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/volcano/gifs/ringoffirecolor.GIF

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Great explanation of how the event happens:

Verticle Slice Through A
Subduction Zone

Between Earthquakes [ slow distortion ]	During An Earthquake [ quake starts tsunami ]	Minutes Later [ tsunami waves spread ]
One of the many tectonic plates that make up the Earth's outer shell descends, or "subducts," under an adjacent plate. This kind of boundary between plates is called a "subduction zone." When the plates move suddenly in an area where they are usualy stuck, an earthquake happens.	Stuck to the subducting plate, the overriding plate gets squeezed. Its leading edge is dragged down, while an area behind it bulges upward. This movement goes on for decades or centuries, slowly building up stress.	An earthquake along a subduction zone happens when the leading edge of the overriding plate breaks free and springs seaward, raising the sea floor and the water above it. This uplift starts a tsunami. Meanwhile, the bulge behind the leading edge collapses, thinning the plate and lowering coastal areas.	Part of the tsunami races toward nearby land, growing taller as it comes close to shore. Another part heads accross the ocean toward distant shores. This explains how a tsunami may occure many hundreds of miles from where it originates.

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Click her for above detail and much more

[stlnative]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27886-2004Dec26.html

This latest earthquake apparently broke along a 600-mile section of the Sumatran "subduction zone," starting just north of where Sieh does his research. A subduction zone is a plate boundary where a slab of the Earth's crust surges downward beneath another slab.

"I worry about my segment of the subduction zone," he said. "My section of the subduction zone is still locked, as far as I know."

Along the curving western coast of the Indonesian archipelago, the piece of crust known as the India plate is sinking beneath another expanse of crust called the Burma plate. This process of subduction isn't smooth. It happens violently, joltingly, sometimes here and sometimes there, occasionally prefigured by a less powerful quake (a 7.7 magnitude event occurred in the same area near Sumatra two years ago), but usually without any obvious hint that a disaster is in the offing.

[Paul_Denton]

They are reporting that the quake ripped a 1000 kilometer hole

1000km? in what way? 1000km long?