Sumatra: Seismologists Warn Indonesia of Big Quake

 UPDATE: Link to Video

 

 

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RL79N80&show_article=1&catnum=0"]PADANG,
Indonesia (AP) - Powerful earthquakes terrorized Indonesia for a third
day Friday as thousands of people slept outside in the hills, and
seismologists warned that the worst may be yet to come.

The massive 8.4-magnitude quake that shook Southeast Asia on
Wednesday has been followed by dozens of strong aftershocks that have
killed at least 13 people, damaged hundreds of homes and churned up a
10-foot- high tsunami.

On Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey measured one aftershock jolting the area at magnitude 6.4.

Experts have been predicting a repeat of the massive earthquake that
triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people
in a dozen Indian Ocean nations. Kerry Sieh of the California Institute
of Technology, who has spent decades studying the volatile fault line,
said these temblors could be leading up to the big one.

"No one can say whether it will be in 30 seconds or 30 years," Sieh
said. "But what happened the other day, I think is quite possibly a
sequence of smaller earthquakes leading up to the bigger one."

On Wednesday, a wall of water slammed into several fishing villages
on the island of Sumatra and swept away nearly a dozen houses, but
caused no deaths. The massive quakes have also heightened experts'
concerns.

The fault, which runs the length of the west coast of Sumatra about
125 miles offshore, is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific
tectonic plates, which have been pushing against each other for
millions of years. This can cause huge stresses to build up.

"There is a strong indication this foreshadows the big one," said
Danny Hillman, an earthquake specialist at the Indonesian Institute of
Science. "We all agree there is an 8.5 or stronger earthquake waiting
to happen."

That's exactly what residents along Sumatra's western coast, which
is expected to bear the brunt of the next disaster, are worried about.
The island was hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami, accounting for nearly
two-thirds of the deaths.

In the tiny fishing village of Sungai Pisang, just south of the
badly damaged city of Padang, hundreds of people were too scared to
return home after the recent tremors sent a large wave washing into
their bay.

At a camp pitched on a muddy hillside cemetery, they have been
sleeping atop plastic sheets or on the cold ground between graves. A
small generator powers a light bulb, hung over branches in the thick
tropical undergrowth, but there is little else.

"I am very afraid of another tsunami," said Dasima, a 50-year-old
rice farmer who fled with her 7-year-old grandson, Rolin. "We only cook
our rice in the town and then return here to eat and sleep. We will
stay here until we feel it is safe."

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, with a population of 235
million people, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the
"Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the
Pacific Basin.

[/q]

 

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RL7ABG3&show_article=1&catnum=0"]BENGKULU,
Indonesia, Sept. 14 (AP) - (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INFO,
CHANGING DATELINE)

Scores of people in a coastal region of Indonesia's quake-hit
Bengkulu Province on Sumatra Island fled their homes Friday after
authorities issued a tsunami warning in the wake of yet another temblor
minutes earlier.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9, according to the
Meteorological and Geophysics Agency that issued the tsunami warning
but lifted it within an hour.

The quake occurred at 1:01 p.m. local time and was centered some 120
kilometers off the town of Bengkulu, at a depth of 35 km under the
seabed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which measured the
quake at M6.4.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Sumatra has been rocked by a series of strong earthquakes since
Wednesday when the largest one, measuring 8.4, hit the same area as
Friday's quake, killing at least 14 people and injuring 63.

Residents of Lais, a coastal region of the province, started fleeing
in trucks, vans and motorbikes to higher ground after police and
military officials told them of the tsunami threat from the sea about
half a kilometer away.

Reporters who were interviewing local humanitarian aid staff under a tent felt the ground sway under their feet for 1-2 minutes.

Amid shouts of "tsunami" and "the sea is rising," villagers panicked
and fled for their lives along with volunteer staff, military and
police officials, until they learned the tsunami warning had been
lifted.

Several tsunami alerts have been issued since Wednesday although no
tsunami had occurred except for a small one in Padang, another coastal
town.

Lais has suffered some of the worst destruction, with about 3,200
homes, or 85 percent of the homes there, damaged or completely
devastated Wednesday. But miraculously, no one was killed in Lais,
although a few were injured, perhaps because the quake happened in
early evening when most people were still awake.

Most people here now sleep under makeshift tents outside their homes
for fear of another quake. All schools in the village have been damaged
by the quake. Yusda Hartati, a 42-year-old mother who fled with her two
children in one of the trucks, said her brick home near the coast
suffered serious cracks while her bathroom collapsed as a result of the
quake, so she is staying with her cousin who lives in a wooden house on
higher ground.

Indonesia, with more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes.[/q]

 

 [q
url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake"]PADANG,
Indonesia - Three powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24
hours, triggering tsunami alerts Thursday and sending panicked
residents fleeing to high ground. At least nine people were killed in
the tremors.

The first two quakes in western Indonesia — magnitudes 8.4 and 7.8 —
were followed by a 6.2-magnitude temblor in the east, according to the
U.S. Geological Survey.

The largest spawned nearly 10-foot-high waves on Sumatra island
Wednesday, and the other two on Thursday triggered tsunami alerts,
Indonesia's meteorological agency said.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,"
an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and
triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen
countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province
of Aceh.[/q]

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RK9CT00&show_article=1&catnum=0"]PADANG,
Indonesia (AP) - 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.

Rafael Abreu, a geologist with The U.S. Geological Survey in
Colorado, said the magnitude-7.8 quake did not appear to be an
aftershock to Wednesday's 8.4-magnitude temblor.

"We are not calling it an aftershock at this point. It's fairly
large itself. It seems to be a different earthquake," Abreu said.

He said a tsunami watch was in effect for Australia and Indonesia. Indonesia later lifted its alert with no tsunamis detected.

"The quake seems to be pretty shallow," he said. "These are the quakes that can produce tsunamis."

The USGS said the new quake was centered about 125 miles from
Bengkulu, a city on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which was ravaged
by the 2004 tsunami. It occurred at a shallow depth of about six miles.

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.

On Wednesday, a strong earthquake shook Southeast Asia, collapsing
buildings, killing at least five people and injuring dozens in
Indonesia. That tremor triggered small waves off the coastal city of
Padang in Sumatra, the island ravaged by the 2004 tsunami disaster.

Thursday's quake caused extensive damage in Padang, a local official said.

"Many buildings collapsed after this morning's quake," Fauzi Bahar,
the governor, told El Shinta radio. "We're still trying to find out
about victims.

After Wednesday's quake, frightened people fled their homes and ran
inland, fearing a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that struck
a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 230,000
people.

"Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction," Wati
Said reported by cell phone from Bengkulu, a town 80 miles from the
quake's epicenter. "We think our neighborhood is high enough. God
willing, if the water comes, it will not touch us here. ... Everyone is
afraid."

One witness, Budi Darmawan, said a three-story building near his office fell.

"I saw it with my own eyes," he told El Shinta radio.

The quake was felt in at least four countries, with tall buildings
swaying in cities up to 1,200 miles away. The tremor was followed by a
series of strong aftershocks, further rattling residents.

Telephone lines and electricity were disrupted across a large swath
of Indonesia, making it difficult to get information about damage and
casualties.

Suhardjono, a senior official with the local meteorological agency
who like most Indonesians uses only one name, said a small tsunami,
perhaps 3-feet high, struck the city of Padang about 20 minutes after
the quake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported a small
wave.

Most damage appeared to come from the ground-shaking of the tremor.

Two people died when a car dealership collapsed in Padang and
another was killed by a fire that broke out on the fourth floor of a
damaged department store, a witness, Alfin, said by phone. Excavation
machinery was being used to search the rubble for survivors, he said.

The Health Ministry said two people died in Bengkulu. The Social
Affairs Department said seven had been killed in and around the town.
The differing tallies could not be reconciled immediately.

At least 194 people were injured in Bengkulu, reported Amin Kurnia,
a doctor who said most were being treated in a compound outside the
hospital because its walls were cracked.

The undersea temblor hit around 6:10 p.m. at a depth of 18 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, hundreds of miles from the
epicenter, office workers streamed down stairwells as tall office
buildings swayed. High-rises also were affected in Malaysia, Singapore
and Thailand.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide
areas of the region, saying "earthquakes of this size have the
potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect
coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean Basin."

Sensitive to the 2004 tsunami disaster, governments issued alerts as
far away as Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, telling people to leave
beaches. People in Mombasa, Kenya, crowded into buses after hearing the
warning over the radio.

Indonesia issued a tsunami alert following the initial quake and
then a second when a magnitude-6.6 aftershock hit, but lifted them
after a few hours, saying there was no longer a potential for
destructive waves.

Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center sent cell phone text
messages alerting hundreds of officials in six southern provinces, and
after the danger past broadcast a statement on television to reassure
the public.

In India, officials said the tremor wasn't felt in the remote
Andaman and Nicobar islands, some of which are just 150 miles north of
the quake's epicenter. But an alert was issued and authorities were
told to take precautions, said Dharam Pal, the regional relief
commissioner.

Sri Lankans were told to move at least 660 feet inland.

In Australia, the tsunami warning was lifted after only small rises
in the sea level were measured at Cocos Island and the Christmas
Islands. But officials warned residents to stay away from the ocean,
saying dangerous waves and currents could affect beaches, harbors and
river mouths for several hours.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheaval due to its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos
and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

The magnitude-9 earthquake that hit on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a
tsunami off the coast of Sumatra that killed an estimated 230,000
people in a dozen nations, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh
province.[/q]

 [q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/13/indonesia.quake/index.html"]JAKARTA,
Indonesia (CNN) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2
struck northeast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, Thursday afternoon, a day
after three major earthquakes struck the region, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey.

Companies ordered emergency evacuations after the earthquake struck Wednesday night.

Residents
in Indonesia and other Indian Ocean nations were put on notice about
the possibility of tsunami waves. Most of those watches were later
dropped, although a watch remained in effect for Indonesia.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck about 6:45 a.m. (1145 GMT),
according to the USGS. The epicenter was about 185 km (115 miles)
south-southeast of Padang and about 210 km northwest of Bengkulu.

About four hours later, the USGS reported that a 7.1-magnitude quake
had rocked the region. Sandwiched in-between were half a dozen temblors
measuring 5.0 and above.

According to Indonesia's Social Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, a
total of at least 60 earthquakes have rattled the country within a
24-hour period.

"Our main concern is the people," Bakrie said from Padang. "The
victims are not as dire as we thought and everything has been taken
care of."

The seismic shakedown began Wednesday night with a deadly 8.4-magnitude quake -- centered in southern Sumatra.

It was not immediately known whether Thursday's quakes were
aftershocks of Wednesday's event. At least 10 aftershocks of magnitude
5.1 to 6.0 were felt in the region after the larger quake, which shook
buildings hundreds of miles away, killed at least nine people and
generated a small tsunami about 60 cm (2 feet) high along the Sumatran
coast.

While there were no immediate reports of a tsunami after Thursday's quakes, the Indonesian government issued a tsunami warning.

People in the Indian Ocean region have been extremely skittish about
the possibility of earthquake-induced tsunamis since December 2004,
when gigantic waves triggered by a 9.1-magnitude quake that killed more
than 200,000 people in seven countries.

Wednesday evening's quake
killed at least nine people in Bengkulu province and Padang, and an
unknown number were injured or missing, according to officials.
Search-and-rescue operations, suspended overnight, resumed at daylight
Thursday, which also marked the start of the holy month of Ramadan in
the mostly Muslim country.

The relatively light loss of life can be attributed to national and
provincial governments being battle-tested by a string of powerful
earthquakes over the last three years, Bakrie said.

"The people understand more about the problems and the danger of the
earthquakes," according to Bakrie. "The central government as well as
the district government, at the provincial level, has warned the people
... so the system works."

The powerful quake shook buildings about 385 miles away in the
Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and also in Singapore, about 435 miles
from the epicenter.

"Doors started to creak, and the whole apartment seemed to ... make
a cracking noise," said Rahayu Saraswati, who lives on the 35th floor
of a building in Jakarta. "We ran out to the emergency staircase with
other residents of the floor and ran all the way down to the lobby."

Bakrie said thousands of homes have been damaged in Sumatra.

Indonesia, a chain of islands in a seismically active area, is
highly prone to earthquakes. Since the devastating tsunami of December
2004, Indonesia has fallen victim to 15 earthquakes with magnitudes of
6.3 or higher, according to the USGS. The quakes have killed almost
8,000 people, with the bulk of the deaths coming last summer.

The deadliest quake last summer came on May 26, 2006, when a
magnitude-6.3 quake 16 km south-southeast of Yogyakarta left 5,749
dead. On July 17, 2006, a magnitude-7.7 temblor hit 145 miles
south-southwest of Tasikmalaya, in Indonesia's Java region. The quake
killed 730 people.

Another devastating quake on March 28, 2005 -- a magnitude-8.7 about
201 km west-northwest of Sibolga -- killed 1,313 people.[/q]

 

 

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RK8G581&show_article=1&catnum=0"]JAKARTA,
Sept. 13 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A strong earthquake hit the south of
Indonesia's Sumatra island Thursday morning, prompting Indonesian
authorities to issue a tsunami warning.

The quake measured 8.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It came after a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.4 hit the
region Wednesday, leaving three people dead and 21 injured, according
to government officials.[/q]

 

[q
url="http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-09-12T210123Z_01_SP197418_RTRUKOC_0_US-QUAKE-INDONESIA.xml&src=rss&sp=true"]JAKARTA
(Reuters) - A severe earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra region on
Wednesday, destroying buildings and killing at least two people in a
toll experts said was sure to rise.

The 8.4 magnitude earthquake, which was also felt in neighboring
Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, caused extensive damage to buildings
along Sumatra's coast, according to Adam Malik of Indonesia's National
Disaster Management Office.

Some buildings had collapsed in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra
north of the termor's epicenter, witnesses reported, while Metro TV
said some buildings had caught fire.

"The city is in complete chaos. Everyone is heading to higher
ground, I saw one house collapsed to the ground. I'm trying to save my
family," said a Reuters witness in Padang.

Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar said three people were trapped in a collapsed three-story office building.

David Oppenheimer, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in
Menlo Park, California, said the death toll could well rise as
authorities take stock of the impact.

A quake with an eight magnitude typically leads to partial collapse
of buildings, houses moved off their foundations, and other damage, he
said

"That's the kind of stuff that causes death, especially in the Third
World," he said, "I think there is an information blackout at this
point."

TSUNAMI WARNINGS LIFTED

Indonesia issued two
tsunami warnings, one after the first quake, and the second after a
smaller tremor a few hours later in the same area. However, the
Indonesian warnings and most others in the region had been lifted by 3
p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

As several big aftershocks hit the region,
many people chose to sleep out in the open rather than return indoors,
a Red Cross official in Bengkulu, close to the epicenter of the quake,
told Reuters.

 

"Glass was broken, ceilings collapsed, and the walls cracked in
the hospital," said Aldi, a member of the staff of M. Yunus hospital in
Bengkulu. He added that patients were being treated in two tents
erected in the hospital grounds and that more tents were needed.

Rustam
Pakaya, head of the health ministry crisis centre in Jakarta, said the
government would send one metric ton of medicine, three metric tons of
food supplements, and one metric ton of noodles on Thursday for
displaced people in the area.

The two main cities that were worst
hit, Bengkulu and Padang, have a total population of about two million
people, he said. "This quake is a test in Ramadan so that Indonesians
become more patient," Pakaya said, referring to the fact that the quake
struck on the eve of the Muslim fasting month.

An official at Indonesia's meteorological agency said gauges measured a wave surge of one meter after the first quake. The emergency rescue system has mobilized and the president has
ordered the military to help the rescue effort," President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman said.

A huge earthquake struck the
same area on December 26, 2004, causing a massive tsunami and more than
230,000 deaths in countries across the region.

Indonesia suffers frequent quakes, lying on an active seismic belt on part of the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire".

Indonesia's
meteorological agency said the big quake's epicenter was 159 km (99
miles) southwest of Bengkulu, a remote area of mountains and forests.

 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an Indian Ocean
tsunami warning after the first quake struck at 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m.
EDT). Authorities from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Australia
issued independent warnings, as did India for the Andaman and Nicobar
islands, France for the island of Reunion and Mozambique.

[/q]

 

[q
url="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INDONESIA_EARTHQUAKE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME"]JAKARTA,
Indonesia (AP) -- A powerful earthquake shook Indonesia on Wednesday,
killing seven people, injuring 100 and triggering a small tsunami that
hit one city on the island of Sumatra, authorities said. Tsunami
warnings were issued for much of the Indian Ocean region.

The 8.4-magnitude quake off Sumatra badly damaged buildings along
the coast and could be felt in at least four countries, with tall
buildings swaying as far as 1,200 miles away.

It was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which
registered at a magnitude of 6.6 and triggered a second tsunami alert
for Indonesia, which was lifted about an hour later, said Suhardjono,
an official with Indonesia's meteorological agency, who goes by only
one name.

At least seven people were killed in three Sumatran towns, Social
Affairs Department official Felix Valentino told the news portal
detik.com. Phone lines and electricity also were cut. Most of the
damage appeared to be from the quake.

A wave of up to 9 feet was reported to have struck the city of Padang about 20 minutes after the initial quake, Suhardjono said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami hit Padang.

Several buildings in Padang were damaged and at least one car
showroom collapsed, according to the news Web site detik.com, which
said people were searching to see if anyone was inside. It did not say
whether the quake or wave caused the damage. Suhardjono said
communication with the area was difficult.

At least one person was killed and dozens injured in Bengkulu, the
town closest to the epicenter, local government official Salamun Harius
told El Shinta radio. At least 100 others were hospitalized, senior
Health Ministry official Rustam Pakaya said.

Residents in Bengkulu, where at least one building was demolished, said the quake triggered panic and that people ran inland.

"Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction," said
Wati Said, who spoke by cell phone standing outside her house. "We
think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes,
it will not touch us here."

"Communication is cut, we can't call out," she added. "I don't know how you contacted us. Everyone is afraid."

The quake could be felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 375
miles away, where office workers streamed down the stairwells of tall,
swaying buildings. It also caused tall buildings to sway in neighboring
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The undersea quake hit at about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT), the U.S.
Geological Survey said. It was centered 80 miles southwest of Sumatra
island at a depth of 18.6 miles.

"Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a
widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the
entire Indian Ocean Basin," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said,
warning that waves could hit Indonesia and Australia within an hour,
and Sri Lanka and India within three hours.

It lifted the alert for Indonesia about two hours later, saying there was no longer a potential for a destructive wave.

An official with Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center,
Passakorn Khanthasap, said it had sent cell phone text messages
alerting hundreds of officials in six southern provinces.

The Kenyan government issued a tsunami warning and told people to leave beaches.

In India, officials said nothing was felt in the remote Andaman and
Nicobar islands, some of which are just 150 miles north of Sumatra.

The Indian government issued a tsunami alert for the islands, and
officials were telling local authorities to take precautions, said
Dharam Pal, the regional relief commissioner.

In Australia, the tsunami warning was lifted after only small rises
in the sea level were measured at Cocos Island and the Christmas
Islands. But officials warned residents to stay away from the ocean,
warning that dangerous waves and currents could still affect beaches,
harbors and rivers for several hours.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,"
an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and
triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen
countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province
of Aceh.[/q]

 

[q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/indonesia.quake/index.html"]JAKARTA,
Indonesia (CNN) -- At least three people have been killed in Sumatra as
a result of Wednesday's 8.2-magnitude earthquake, Indonesian officials
say.

Companies ordered emergency evacuations after the earthquake struck.

One person was killed by a fallen tree in Bengkulu province and two
died in Padang when the force of the quake damaged the building they
were in, the social services department said.

The quake in the Indian Ocean shook buildings in Jakarta nearly 640
kilometers (400 miles) away from the epicenter off the coast of Sumatra
and sent frightened people into the streets.

Closer to the epicenter, residents of Bengkulu province panicked and
fled their homes, said John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial
Times, from Jakarta.

"The panic and concern is likely to continue for some time," he
said. Many buildings along Sumatra's western coast collapsed, he added.
The quake struck as the heavily Muslim country prepared for Islam's
holy month of Ramadan, set to start in the coming days.

A small tsunami was detected in Padang, on Sumatra -- several
hundred miles northeast of the epicenter -- according to the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center.

It measured about 60 cm (2 feet high), much smaller than the devastating tsunami that struck in 2004, the center said.

Indonesia's meteorological center said the small tsunami was not a
concern and canceled its tsunami alert several hours after the quake
struck, but it issued a new alert after a strong aftershock occurred at
at 9:40 p.m. (1440 GMT). The Indonesian meteorological center measured
that aftershock at 6.6, but the U.S. Geological Survey estimated it at
5.9.

A tsunami watch issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center after
the initial quake remains in effect for at least 24 countries around
the Indian Ocean, including Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Iran, Yemen and Kenya.

India's government put its own alert for the country's coastal areas that were struck by the 2004 tsunami.

Wednesday's quake was about 10 times smaller than the 9.0-magnitude
temblor that caused the giant tsunami off the northern tip of Indonesia
in 2004 that killed more than 200,000 people in seven countries rimming
the Indian Ocean, John Applegate of the U.S. Geological Survey in
Washington told CNN.

Wednesday's quake released 33 percent less energy, he added.

"The strongest shaking would have been in a relatively less populated area," Applegate said of Wednesday's quake.

The quake was strong enough, however, to be felt in Malaysia and
Thailand. Several aftershocks have been recorded, including a
5.7-magnitude temblor about an hour later.

Applegate said Wednesday's quake was shallow, nearly 30 km deep,
which is more of a threat to the local population, especially because
it occurred beneath the sea.

"(With a) deep earthquake, the waves have to travel through a lot of
the earth before they reach population; shallow earthquake means the
local population is right there," he explained. "It also means that its
more likely to rupture the surface, and with this being a subsea
earthquake, that means there is the tsunami potential."

Several commercial skyscrapers in Jakarta were rocked by the quake, some 605 km southeast of the epicenter.

"It's pretty strong and people are being evacuated from the tall buildings," said Andy Saputra, CNN producer in Jakarta.

Although some employees were too afraid to leave their offices,
companies ordered immediate emergency evacuations, he said. Workers
exited structures via fire stairs and ran into the street, away from
buildings and other potential dangers, Saputra added.

High-rise buildings also were evacuated in Singapore, 1,100 km
northeast of the epicenter, CNN producer Martin Bohley said. He said he
felt shaking for almost a minute.

Since the 2004 quake off Sumatra's northern tip, Applegate said earthquakes along Indonesia's coast have been moving south.

After the disastrous 9.0 quake that triggered the deadly tsunami
nearly three years ago, the next major earthquake to strike the region
was an 8.7 quake that struck close to the capital a year later.

John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial Times, told CNN he was
in his office on the 16th floor of a Jakarta high-rise when Wednesday's
quake struck.

"I heard the blinds flapping in the window first, and then there was
the chair shaking," he said. "It was quite spooky being up so high when
it happened."

Aglionby said he ran into the street along with everyone else
seeking safe haven. When he arrived on the street, the security guards
and other people on ground level said they felt nothing.

"It's a bizarre experience of some people getting very scared and other people just continuing life as if nothing had happened."

Wednesday's quake struck near Bengkulu province which was devastated
in June 2000 by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake -- followed by a
6.7-magnitude aftershock -- that killed more than 100 people, injured
nearly 2,800 and damaged more than 40,000 buildings, according to the
Red Cross.

Because of that experience, Aglionby said he was certain the
residents of the sparsely populated region would not wait for a
government warning to head for safer ground.

"As soon as they felt the land shaking they would run, and run fast uphill and on land," the journalist said.

Mark Ferdig, a spokesman for Mercy Corps in Banda Aceh, Indonesia,
near where the 2004 quake hit, said the Indonesian government seemed
better equipped to deal with this quake, because of its previous
experiences.

"I think that the government is able to respond to events like this,
whether it's quick enough and timely enough, we'll have to wait and
see. But I'll have to say that the government has learned from the
recent disasters."

Since the devastating tsunami of December 2004, Indonesia has fallen
victim to 15 earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.3 or higher, according to
the USGS. The quakes have killed almost 8,000 people, with the bulk of
the deaths coming last summer.

The deadliest quake last summer came on May 26, 2006, when a
magnitude-6.3 quake 10 miles south-southeast of Yogyakarta left 5,749
dead. On July 17, 2006, a magnitude-7.7 temblor hit 145 miles
south-southwest of Tasikmalaya, in Indonesia's Java region. The quake
killed 730 people.

Another devastating quake on March 28, 2005 -- a magnitude-8.7 about
125 miles west-northwest of Sibolga -- killed 1,313 people.[/q]

 

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RJUIG80&show_article=1&catnum=0"]JAKARTA,
Indonesia (AP) - A massive earthquake struck Indonesia on Wednesday,
triggering a tsunami in the town of Padang and warnings for much of the
Indian Ocean region, authorities said. The quake caused tall buildings
to sway in a least four countries.

A wave of up to nine feet was reported to have hit Padang about 20
minutes after the quake, said Suhardjono, an official with Indonesia's
meteorological agency, who goes by only one name.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami hit Padang.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)—A powerful earthquake hit Indonesia on
Wednesday, causing buildings to sway in at least four countries, and
authorities issued a tsunami warning for much of the Indian Ocean
region.

The undersea quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at
about 6:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EDT), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It
was centered 65 miles southwest of Bengkulu, on Sumatra island, at a
depth of 9.7 miles, the USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region.

"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, warning that waves could hit
Indonesia and Australia within an hour, and Sri Lanka and India within
three hours.

Residents in Bengkulu—where at least one building was demolished—said the quake triggered panic and that people ran inland.

"Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction,"
according to Wati Said, who spoke by cell phone standing outside her
house. "We think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the
water comes, it will not touch us here."

"Communication is cut, we can't call out," she added. "I don't know how you contacted us. Everyone is afraid."

The temblor could also be felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta,
375 miles away, where office workers streamed down the stairwells of
tall, swaying buildings.

Some people in high-rises in neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand also felt the quake.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,"
an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and
triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen
countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province
of Aceh.[/q]

[q
url="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296512,00.html"]JAKARTA,
Indonesia — A powerful earthquake off western Indonesia triggered
warnings of a potentially destructive tsunami across much of the Indian
Ocean region Wednesday, meteorological agencies said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the underwater quake had a
preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at about 6:10 p.m. (1110 GMT). It
was centered 65 miles southwest of Bengkulu on Sumatra island at a
depth of 15.6 kilometers 9.7 miles, it said.

Reuters, sourcing Global TV, reported several buildings in West Sumatra had collapsed.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region.

"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, warning that waves could hit
Indonesia and Australia within an hour.

Sri Lanka and India could be struck within three hours, it said.

Residents in Bengkulu said the quake triggered panic and that people were running inland.

The temblor could also be felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta,
where office workers streamed down the stairwells of tall swaying
buildings.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,"
an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A massive Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered a tsunami off the
coast of Sumatra that killed more than 131,000 in Indonesia's Aceh
province registered magnitude 9.0 and was 18 miles deep, according to
USGS.

[/q]