• The break in the Nias plate on March 28, 2005 was 300 km long.

• The Nias break resulted in the 8.7 earthquake of March 28, 2005.

• As a result of the plate shift on March 28th, both Nias and Simeulue islands tilted east towards the mainland of Sumatra. The largest uplift was at Lahewa – the northwest tip of Nias – it rose 2.9 meters.

• Sirombu, a village about ½ way up the west coast of Nias, and the area where the most deaths were recorded after the December 26th earthquake, has lifted 2.4 meters.

• The Hinako Islands, just off the southwest side of Nias Island rose 1 meter. Lagundri, the southwest tip of Nias Island, is only up 70 cm.

• Teluk Dalam, the southernmost village, and major southern port on Nias, is down a few centimeters.

• Nyang Nyang Island, just south of Siberut Island, about 100 miles west of Padang, moved 10 cm towards Sumatra.

• The west side of Nias and the west side of Simeulue Island had the max uplift.

• Aloban, the second biggest town in the Banyak Island chain is down 30cm.

• Pulau Balai, the largest town in the Banyak Islands, is down 80 cm. At high tide the road along the harbor at Pulau Balai is 80 cm under water.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO QUAKES:

• Aceh December 26… 9.3 earthquake (this has been recently adjusted from the original 9.0) – 1600 meters of breakage, resulting in a 10-meter tsunami.

• Nias March 28 … 8.7 earthquake – 300 meters of breakage. The Nias earthquake had approx 5 times less energy, and approx 10 times less water movement, yet much more geographical changes to the islands. The biggest tsunami effect recorded was roughly 2 meters on SW side of Nias.

MORE INSIGHTS FROM KERRY

• Kerry said he is less worried about a giant earthquake happening anywhere the plates have popped up. He said Padang is rising slightly, which means in an event of a big earthquake it will likely sink.

• Most of Padang is below 5 meters above sea level. The tsunami that hit Aceh was 10 meters. In the March 28th earthquake, a tsunami came in 2 meters on the southwest area of Nias.

• The hinge of the two plates is between Lagundri, southwest tip of Nias Island, and Teluk Dalam, 15 – 20 km east of Lagundri. This means that in that 15 – 20 km of land, the earth hinged and one side rose while the other side dropped.

• Onolimbu and Bodsijhona, villages on the eastern tip of Nias, have dropped. These villages are located 10 – 20 miles SE of the airport at Gunung Sitoli – Nias’ largest town. They are on a river delta, which has accentuated the sinking. The coastline there is mainly coconut groves, which are continuing to fall into the sea.

• The Island of Bojo, the southernmost island of the Telo/Batu Island chain, is locked tight. Meaning the plates are not releasing any pressure. But there is nothing new to suggest another big earthquake – nothing geologic to issue a warning.

• New evidence has been found that the earthquake/tsunami of 1797 centered in the Mentawai Islands broke through from the southern islands of Pagai to the northern island of Siberut. Siberut received the least amount of rising at 70cm. This caused an English ship to be pushed 1 km inland by the tsunami in the Maura area of Padang. This information comes from translations of Dutch documents recorded after the 1797 earthquake.

• The earthquake/tsunami of 1833 went from Enganno to Tuapajet. Kerry says that if the next tsunami is similar to the one of 1833, then we are to expect a 4 – 5 meter tsunami along the east coast of Padang. Most of Padang is 4 - 5 meters above sea level. A 5-meter tsunami would cover most of the city.

• Siberut Island (the northernmost island in the Mentawais) is the most likely next spot for a BIG quake; it has sunk the furthest of Sumatra’s outer islands and at present has the most pressure being put on it.

• The subduction zone is curved, and vertical. The Indian Ocean/Aussie plate is moving north. This plate is breaking along that curve from the outside in stretching the length of the outer islands off the west coast of Sumatra.

• The Mentawai break, thought to happen near Siberut, and the one that would hit Padang, would likely be more similar to the Nias break than the Aceh break. The length of the area shifted during the Aceh quake was the longest in recorded history.

• Japanese bunkers from World War 2 that have been underwater for years located in the southeast area of Simeulue, have now been pushed back up and are completely above the water.

• The April 10th earthquake caused a small tsunami. Padang recorded 20 cm river movement.

• There have been 10 mega quakes in the last 100 years before the Aceh quake. A mega quake registers at least 9.0 on the Richter scale. The years 1950 and 1965 recorded the most. 70% of these mega quakes happened in 15% of that 100 years, which means they happen in clusters. Five of these mega quakes were recorded in the north pacific / Alaskan area.

• If a tsunami happened in Padang, the earth would shake for about 3 minutes. The water in the rivers and along the coast would begin to recede approx 15 minutes after the quake. Approx ½ hour after the water began to recede, it would come back as a tsunami at least 5 meters high. This would give people less than an hour to evacuate and move to higher ground.