An 8.6 magnitude earthquakestruck on 11 April 2012 off of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, followed by a strong aftershock. Earthquake motion was primarily horizontal. A tsunami warning was issued for the Indian Ocean, but was cancelled at 12:36 UTC. A tsunami was observed at 1 meter or less. Find out more about earthquake and tsunamiprocesses. Check out the resources here.

NOAA

The outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere is the corona. The corona is very, very hot - about 1 million degrees! Glowing plasma, which is like magnetized gas, sometimes forms loops in the corona. Magnetic fields around sunspots make these loops, called coronal loops. The loops are huge - about 30 Earths would fit across them! A satellite named TRACE took this picture in November 1999.

The "surface" of the Sun (the photosphere) is covered with a "granulation pattern" caused by the convective flow of heat rising to the photosphere from the Sun's interior. The granulation pattern is similar to what you see when you look at the top of a pot of boiling oatmeal. Note how the hotter centers of granules bulge upward, while the cooler edges are sinking downward.