Some of the world's most powerful earthquakes involve multiple faults, and scientists are using supercomputers to better predict their behavior. Multi-fault earthquakes can span fault systems of tens to hundreds of kilometers, with ruptures propagating from one segment to the other. During the last decade, scientists have observed several cases of this complicated type of earthquake. Major examples include the magnitude (abbreviated M) 7.2 2010 Darfield earthquake in New Zealand; the M7.2 El Mayor—Cucapah earthquake in Mexico immediately south of the US-Mexico border; the 2012 magnitude 8.6 Indian Ocean Earthquake; and perhaps the most complex of all, the M7.8 2015 Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand.
* This article was originally published here
