Some of the strongest earthquakes in the world come from the ocean floor south of Australia.The area is called the Southern Ocean.Researchers placed 27 instruments known as seismometers on the ocean floor to find out why.Some of them were over 5 kilometers below the water surface.The instruments have been recording earthquakes for the last year and are now being picked up.It will take three weeks to get them all.A professor from the Australian National University's School of Earth Sciences hopes the information will give more data on how and why earthquakes happen.Hrvoje Tkalcic said more information about how and when earthquakes happen might help scientists predict how far seismic waves will travel afterward.The information could be useful to warn about strong highwater events called tsunamis.He said scientists will not be able to predict earthquakes or how large they will be, but the project will help them understand the structure of the earth in the volatile area.
