India has moved closer to Indonesia: Study

India has geographically moved closer to Indonesia by 12 centimetres after the December 26 earthquake near Sumatra, scientists at the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad said.

An NGRI team, headed by Vineet Gahalaut, did an independent survey using global positioning satellite receivers and found that the distance between Bangalore in India and Medan in Sumatra had shrunk by 12 centimetres.

"The analysis also suggests that cities in southern India might have experienced eastward horizontal movement of up to 10 mm after the quake," Gahalaut said.

This was also confirmed from GPS data at Hyderabad and Bangalore, he added.

The NGRI report comes after geologists in Thiruvananthapuram announced that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands had shifted southwest by a few metres after the killer quake.

Both teams had analysed the data with GPS receivers positioned at different islands.

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