My Zimbio
Top Stories

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Quake Off Indonesia Triggers Tsunami Alert

Quake Off Indonesia Triggers Tsunami Alert
Nov 19, 4:33 PM (ET)
By ALI KOTARUMALOS
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.2 struck off the coast of Sumatra on Saturday, triggering a tsunami alert and prompting some residents to flee their homes, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of a tsunami, damages or casualties.
The quake's epicenter was located off Simeulue island, about 160 miles southwest of Medan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck just after 9 p.m. local time.
Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency put the quake's magnitude at 6.2, but the USGS said the magnitude was 6.5. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
The quake strongly jolted nearby Nias island and was felt in Medan, said Subagio, an official at the Indonesian agency's Jakarta office who goes by a single name.
Agus Mendrofa, deputy mayor of Nias, told El Shinta radio station that some people momentarily fled their houses when the temblor struck.
"It was pretty strong because it was the first time in the past months that people ran out of houses because of a quake," Mendrofa said.
He said he had received no reports of damage on the island.
Rusdi, a Simeulue resident, told The Associated Press by telephone that the quake did not cause any widespread panic in the main island town of Sinabang.
Simeulue is near the epicenter of the 9.0-magnitude quake on Dec. 26 that caused a tsunami that killing or left missing more than 220,000 people in 11 Indian Ocean countries. Sumatra was the hardest hit, losing some 128,000 people.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said there was no threat of a tsunami to Pacific coastlines, but quakes of similar size can sometimes generate local tsunamis along coasts within a few hundred miles of the epicenter.
A team of German and Indonesian scientists are installing a tsunami warning system along the coast of Sumatra, expected to be operational by year's end. The system of sensors on the ocean floor and giant buoys on its surface will be able to notify coastal observation stations within 10 minutes of a tsunami-strength earthquake.
Sumatra has been wracked by scores of powerful aftershocks since last year's tsunami. In March, an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck Nias and Simeulue, causing widespread damage and killing about 900 people.
Experts say the fault line that triggered that temblor is unstable and may produce another major quake soon.


No comments:

Post a Comment

10 Day Weight Loss Pills

Popular Posts

URGENT - Your LIBERTY at RISK


GET A GROUPON!


Curious about what the future holds? Click here to find out how you can receive a 10 minute psychic reading from Psychic Source.

Calculator-1.com - The Best Free Online CalculatorŠ½

Fine Art - Painting Lessons: Real Art!
What is Bio-Farming? Can anyone do it?
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

CURRENT MOON
My Zimbio
Top Stories
 
My Zimbio
Top Stories Get 100 FREE Visitors to Your Website!
eXTReMe Tracker
AyurCat for Cat Health Care