A major earthquake struck to the west of Sumatra late last night.
Thursday 1st October 2009
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck 45 km west-north-west of Padang, Sumatra at 11:16 p.m. last night New Zealand Daylight Time. The 80 km-deep quake was centred 475 km south-south-west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 960 km north-west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Geoscience Australia reports the quake as magnitude 7.9 at a depth of 70 km. It estimates that the quake would have caused damage within 250 km of the epicentre and would have been felt up to 3,000 km away.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre reports the quake at magnitude 7.7 in its bulletin issued at 11:26 p.m. New Zealand time. A tsunami watch was issued for Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia. The watch was cancelled in a second bulletin at 00:31 this morning. A small tsunami was generated, measuring 27 cm at the wave gauge near Padang, Indonesia.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies; the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, and Geoscience Australia.]
There’s a serous lack of aftershocks over that way…
I seem to remember the same thing after other large quakes over there – seems strange!
🙂
Yes the aftershocks near Sumatra have been few. I note that they are following one handy rule. The largest aftershock so far is one magnitude lower than the main event. Perhaps the rapid abatement will continue -much to the relief of locals.