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Powerful Earthquake Rocked West Indonesia |
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 A powerful earthquake hit Indonesia on Wednesday, 12 September 2007, causing buildings to sway strongly in the capital, and authorities issued a tsunami warning for much of the Indian Ocean region. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 and hit at about 6:10 p.m. It was centered 9.7 miles underground in the southern Sumatra area, the USGS said.
A string of aftershocks hit Sumatra on Wednesday evening, several hours after a powerful earthquake rocked Bengkulu province at 6:10 p.m. Metro TV reported that the aftershocks occurred at 8:17 p.m., 9:04 p.m., 9:25 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. in several locations in Sumatra.
The 9:40 p.m. aftershock, which measured 6.6 on the Richter scale, had an epicenter 51 kilometers southwest of Lais, Bengkulu, at a depth of 30 kilometers.
"Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean Basin," it said.
Indonesian media reports that there is damage in several cities in the southern part of Sumatra island after an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.2 hit just off the coast near the city of Bengkulu. Eyewitnesses in Padang and Bengkulu report that some buildings have collapsed during the quake. They also reported that the quake lasted pretty long.
The US Geological Suvey meanwhile reports that there is some movement recorded in tsunami detection buoys, but earlier witnesses in Bengkulu reported that no destructive tsunami has hit the beaches there.
The second large earthquake to strike western Sumatra in less than 24 hours has reportedly brought heavy damage to the city of Padang, directly at the western coast at just 185 kilometers to the north of the epicenter of the earthquake, which had an estimated power of 7.8 on the Richter Scale. Because it struck fairly early in the morning, schools didn't start yet and offices were still virtually empty.
Meanwhile, the third tsunami-alert issued a few hours earlier after this earthquake has been retracted by BMG, the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Office.
Location of the earthquake
· 159 km S.W. of Bengkulu
130 km (80 miles) SW of Bengkulu, Sumatra
410 km (255 miles) SW of Jambi, Sumatra
620 km (385 miles) WNW of Jakarta
695 km (435 miles) SSW of Singapore
Second Powerful Quake
The second powerful earthquake in as many days shook western Indonesia Thursday, collapsing buildings in a coastal city and triggering tsunami alerts around the region.
The latest quake was also felt in Malaysia and in Singapore where tall buildings swayed. It triggered at least one strong aftershock.
On Wednesday, a strong earthquake shook Southeast Asia, collapsing buildings, killing at least five people and injuring dozens in Indonesia. That tremor triggered a small non-destructive tsunami off the coastal city of Padang on Sumatra, the Indonesian island ravaged by the 2004 tsunami disaster. A tsunami warning was issued for wide areas of the region and nations as far away as Africa.
Thursday's magnitude-7.8 quake rattled the same area of Sumatra.
Rafael Abreu, a geologist with The U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado, said the quake on Thursday did not appear to be an aftershock to the 8.4-magnitude temblor the day before. But the centers of both were close together.
"We are not calling it an aftershock at this point. It's fairly large itself. It seems to be a different earthquake," Abreu said.
"The quake seems to be pretty shallow," he said. "These are the quakes that can produce tsunamis."
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning, lifted it and then reissued it. A tsunami watch was also in effect for Australia.
The USGS said the new quake was centered about 125 miles from Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra. It occurred at a shallow depth of about six miles and struck at 6:49 a.m.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii warned Thursday's quake had the potential to generate a destructive regional tsunami along coasts within 600 miles of the epicenter. It advised authorities to take immediate action to evacuate coastal areas.
Thursday's quake caused extensive damage in Padang, a local official said.
"Many buildings collapsed after this morning's quake," Fauzi Bahar, the mayor, told El Shinta radio. "We're still trying to find out about victims.
Thousands of frightened people piled in trucks or sought shelter on high ground.
After Wednesday's quake, frightened people fled their homes and ran inland, fearing a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Sumatra that struck a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean. That disaster killing an estimated 230,000 people in a dozen nations, most of them in Aceh province on Sumatra.
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