Microseismic anomalies before the Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004

Microseismic records from five broadband IRIS stations located at distances of 1000–2000 km from the earthquake source are studied. Unordinary programs are used to extract hidden periodicities, determine signal coherence at different stations, and reveal asymmetry in wave amplitudes. The records obtained at a few stations 60 h before the Sumatra earthquake include periodic oscillations in the range of periods from 20 to 60 min that arose after the McQuary earthquake and continued for about 24 h. Synchronization of waves recorded at all stations commenced 53 h before the Sumatra earthquake and continued up to the time of the earthquake, with the predominant period gradually increasing from a few minutes to tens of minutes.