40 PILOT WHALES BEACH ON NORTH ANDAMAN ISLAND
STRANDING CAUSED BY UNDERSEA EARTHQUAKE SOUTH OF NICOBAR ISLAND October, 2012: Forty pilot whales beached themselves on the 21st of October. They died in the sand inside Elizabeth Bay on North Andaman Island on the western banks of the Andaman Sea. This is the first time that such a large number of whales beached in the area. On 29 September, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred South of Nicobar Island at 6.180N;92.764E. The quake was listed at 14km deep +/- 12km and well within the whale-dangerous zone. Since whales injured by rapid and excessive changes in ambient water pressure lose their ability to navigated immediately after the injury, their swim path is always downstream and under direct control of the surface currents. This means there must be clear evidence that the source of the barotraumatic injury is indeed upstream from the beaching site, and that the distance traveled downstream corresponds with the speed of the current and the swim sp...