The Islands of Ranongga and Simbo now have different landscape after the earthquake and tsunami a fortnight ago.

Simbo Island dropped about a meter while Ranongga was raised about two meters exposing submerged reefs.

A tsunami scientist at the American Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Hermann Fritz says the islands will stay as they are permanently.

He says what caused the raising and the sinking on parts of the two Islands is the collision of two undersea plates forcing one to go above the other.

Professor Fritz says now that the stress on the plates have been released, which had resulted in the earthquake and the tsunami, the area has settled and there won't be any major earthquake for a long time.