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An earthquake lasted 32 years, and scientists want to know how – National Geographic

The slow quake—the longest ever recorded—ended in disaster in 1861. Experts are racing to find today’s equivalents.

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When a magnitude 8.5 mega-earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra in February 1861, it caused the land to convulse, stirring up a wall of water that crashed on nearby shores and killed thousands of people. 
Now, it seems that tragic event was no isolated incident: It actually marked the end of the longest earthquake ever recorded, which crept through the subsurface for a whopping 32 years. Known as a slow-slip event, these kinds of quakes have been known to unfurl over days, months,…

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