The Great Sumatran fault zone accommodates most of the strike-slip motion associated with the oblique convergence between the Indo-Australian plate and Eurasian plate[1] The fault ends in the north near the city of Banda Aceh, which was devastated in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

The Great Sumatran fault is part of the system where strain partitioning was first described in plate tectonics.

Most of the convergent strain is accommodated by thrust motion at the plate boundary "megathrust" fault that defines the Sunda Trench.

But the oblique motion (the part of the plate motion parallel to the plate boundary) is accommodated by the Great Sumatran fault, which runs along the volcanic Sunda Arc.

This sliver plate is not a single rigid bloc, and the details of its internal deformation are under active investigation.