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Powerful
earthquake of magnitude 7.9 strikes Indonesia:
State of emergency declared
-Dr. Abdul
Ruff
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Nature
has been very harsh with Indonesia and has hit repeatedly this Southeast nation
cruelly.
A
powerful and shallow earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck off the west coast of
the Indonesian island of Sumatra in South East Asia on March 02. The US Geological
Survey said the epicenter was 808 km (502 miles) southwest of Padang, USGS
said. It was 10 km (six miles) deep.
The
earthquake killed some people, but it was not yet clear how many, an official
of the country's search and rescue agency told Reuters. "There are some
who have died," said Heronimus the agency's deputy head of operations,
without giving details. Telephone communication was down in the regency of Mentawai in
Western Sumatra, an area near where a major earthquake struck earlier on
Wednesday, an official with the National Search and Rescue agency said.
Indonesia has declared a state of
emergency. However, the tsunami warning put out after the earthquake has been
lifted hours after.
The
shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage. USGS originally put
the magnitude at 8.2, and then 8.1, before lowering it to 7.9.
Indonesia
had issued tsunami warnings after the earthquake off Sumatra. According to the
AP, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology also issued a warning for Cocos and Christmas
islands near Australia. The Met Bureau did not advise evacuations, but warned
that strong and dangerous currents were possible. People were asked to secure
boats and avoid waterfront areas. The Bureau also said that a tsunami had not
been confirmed. Reuters later reported that the tsunami warning had been
lifted, quoting a meteorological agency official.
Indonesia,
badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, straddles the so-called
"Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone where different
plates on the earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and
volcanoes.
Rescue
and rehabilitation operations are in full swing.
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