Major earthquake - 8.7 - hits Indonesia

[Abramelin]

A minute ago I turned on my tv and saw this on CNN.

Nothing much is known yet. It happened west of Sumatra.

A tsunami alarm for all the countries around the Indian Ocean.

Holy crap, not again!

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EDIT:

They do not expect it to be as bad as on X-mas 2004, but I wouldn't wait to find out.

I hope anyone living around the Indian Ocean and reading this runs to higher ground.

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A 6 meters (18 feet) high wave expected at Simeulue island west of Bander Aceh.

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The water at the coasts there is not retreating which is normally a tell-tale sign of an impending tsunami.

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Edited April 11, 2012 by Abramelin

[Gary Meadows]

They are barely talking about it on the news, usually a sign that not much has happened.

They have mentioned the earthquake once and the fact that Justin Beiber was bullied in school three times.

[libstaK]

It looks like luck is on their side this time round - the earthquake did not generate a Tsunami and at this time is unlikely to. So ... now CNN is "reminiscing" about the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2006 .

God bless all Indonesia, I am glad they were spared the worst and got to give their warning system a decent test run, hope no one panicked and hurt themselves getting to higher ground though. They are resilient people overall me thinks.

[libstaK]

Update on CCN now - an aftershock of almost the same magnitude (8.2) has struck in the last few minutes. Water receding off the coast off an island off the west coast of Sumatra - gee I wish they would be more specific. Watch this space I guess ...

Edited April 11, 2012 by libstaK

[Abramelin]

Update on CCN now - an aftershock of almost the same magnitude (8.2) has struck in the last few minutes. Water receding off the coast off an island off the west coast of Sumatra - gee I wish they would be more specific. Watch this space I guess ...

I guess it's Simeulue island.

[jules99]

“It doesn’t look like a major tsunami. But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves,”

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/update-magnitude-88-aftershock-hits-sumatera-as-fears-of-a-large-tsunami-recede-in-indonesia/510730

At least things seem safe for the moment

[libstaK]

"It doesn't look like a major tsunami. But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves,"

http://www.thejakart...ndonesia/510730

At least things seem safe for the moment

If I was drinking my coffee when I read that I would have sprayed my screen

[Abramelin]

Glad to say the worst seems to be over.

But the next is what I have been thinking of:

Dadang, nevertheless, added that there were worries that the major quakes on Wednesday could trigger further frictions on the Indoaustralian tectonic plate, resulting in more string of quakes along western Sumatra coasts.

“Thus people living along western Sumatra coasts, starting from Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bengkulu and Lampung must stay alert,” he warned.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/warning-as-aftershocks-continue-to-pound-indonesias-aceh/510897

[Abramelin]

Karlis posted this today, in the Science & Technology forum:

Scientists had expected Indonesia quake

Karnataka,Crime/Disaster/Accident,Science/Tech, Thu, 12 Apr 2012 IANS

Bangalore, April 12 (IANS) Scientists had been expecting Wednesday's great earthquake off Sumatra but it occurred a little sooner, according to Arun Bapat, an Indian seismologist in Pune.

Bapat is one of the associate scientists of the newly formed International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center (IEVPC) based in Orlando, Florida in the United States.

Asked why the IEVPC failed to predict Wednesday's 8.6 Richter earthquake that triggered tsunami fears in Indian Ocean countries, Bapat said they did suspect an impending quake on April 5 itself.

In an email to IANS Bapat said: "We were expecting occurrence of a large magnitude earthquake in Indonesia.... We were debating it and the expected time window was about 10 to 15 days." But it has occurred earlier, he said.

Bapat said he sensed the possible occurrence of the earthquake first on March 21 itself after having observed the satellite picture of the Total Electron Content (TEC). The TEC is the total number of electrons present between any two points in the Earth's ionosphere and is measured as the number of electrons per square meter.

(...)

According to Bapat, the IEVPC warned earlier this week that a major earthquake and possible tsunami will strike Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia between now and the end of June 2012.

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/04/12/266--Scientists-had-expected-Indonesia-quake-.html