The earthquake happened just off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and may have turned deadly in 1861.

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore identified the earthquake, which they're calling a "slow-slip event" or a "slow-earthquake".

This happens when a fault line in the Earth's crust is moving but not quick enough for a quake to be noticeable.

According to National Geographic, study author Emma Hill said: "I wouldn’t have believed that we would find a slow-slip event so long, but here we found it."

The researchers think a "slow-slip event" started off the coast of Sumatra in 1829 and slowly moved for over 30 years before ending in a big disaster.

The scientists have published a study in the journal Nature Geoscience explaining how they spotted signs of an earthquake event that happened for decades and linked it to the large Sumatra earthquake of 1861.

The magnitude 8.5 quake caused a giant tsunami that ravaged over 300 miles of Indonesian coastline and could have killed thousands of people.

The aftershock is said to have continued for months.

Scientists identified the slow-earthquake event by studying coral along the the Sundra megathrust fault line on the sea floor near the Indonesian island of Simeulue.

Fault line movements can leave a coral imprint that shows how the ground has moved overtime.

Coral can't grow when exposed to the air so layers of dead coral can also reveal sea levels.

The corals observed for the study show a history of the fault line moving on and off between 1738 and 1861.

The scientists hope they're work will help to predict future earthquakes.

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/15128832/worlds-longest-earthquake-32-years/

Oh men!

What 32 years . Do people still live in Sumatra ?
I've always know there for tsunamis and earthquakes

Earthquake is a serious Environmental hazard

I know say e nor go pass Indonesia

That country is so disaster proned;
Earthquakes,Tsunamis, flooding,etc

A major earthquake happens every year there and tsnami every 5 years
A very prominent one happened just 2 years ago.. Imagine a place having earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction all at the same time...over 2k people died within 3 days

Indonesia na country were i nor fit go at all

Y8

I know say e go be Asian country. Dey are the second Africa continent everything wey be bad thing still dey their hand.

What

People never plenty for this world den..

Really. I'm shocked like buhari

GOD Bless Nigeria..

That's a freaking long time.
We dey enjoy for this side oh.

Just say we follow get human earthquakes em.

For 32 whole years and u couldn't locate Aso Villa and its villains for ordinary 32 minutes.

We're not impressed

OMO 30SONTIN YEARS ? THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN IN NAIJA OH.WITH THE WAY TINS ARE ALREADY ARE EVEN A 1SECOND EARTHQUAKE WILL FINISH US

Thank God for Nigeria

All this could and should made me just think this is a lie

They need Jesus Christ in their country

Even Buhari and his fellow fulani terrorist in government are causing earthquake to other ethnic

Oyibo

UAR is a blessed country but we are still in soup.
Imagine Human disaster as leaders. What could have been worst than that?

Lekan111:
Earthquake is a serious Environmental hazard

more like a natural disaster

Imagine Nigeria on that Island.
We would have easily got our 350 nations out of it.

Oya righteous come and say something, make it quick and simple please.

Wonderful God

That is very dangerous