henric
04-11-2012, 12:07 PM
11/04/2012 7:36:55 AM
CTVNews.ca Staff
Hours after a massive earthquake struck off the western coast of Indonesia, a powerful aftershock has triggered a new tsunami warning.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 8.2-magnitude aftershock struck 16 kilometres beneath the ocean floor, more than 600 kilometres from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
That temblor came just hours after the initial quake centred 33 kilometres beneath the ocean floor, more than 430 kilometres from Indonesia's Aceh province.
Residents of Indonesia's western coast as well as Sumatra island and the Mentawai islands are being warned to seek high ground.
More than a dozen countries across the Indian Ocean were already subject to a tsunami watch including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore.
In Thailand, the National Disaster Warning Centre ordered the evacuation of six coastal provinces, including Phuket, Krabi and Phang-Nga.
And India's Tsunami Warning Center issued its own warning for parts of the eastern Andaman and Nicobar islands.
But hours after the quake there are no reports of a threatening tsunami developing.
British geological survey seismologist Roger Musson, who has studied the volatile fault lines in the region, told The Associated Press that the earthquake Tuesday was a strike-slip quake in which the earth shifts horizontally.
Unlike thrust quakes where the earth moves vertically, the chances of Tuesday's temblor triggering a significant wave were slim.
A giant 9.1-magnitude quake that struck the same region on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, 170,000 of them in Aceh province alone.
CTVNews.ca Staff
Hours after a massive earthquake struck off the western coast of Indonesia, a powerful aftershock has triggered a new tsunami warning.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 8.2-magnitude aftershock struck 16 kilometres beneath the ocean floor, more than 600 kilometres from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
That temblor came just hours after the initial quake centred 33 kilometres beneath the ocean floor, more than 430 kilometres from Indonesia's Aceh province.
Residents of Indonesia's western coast as well as Sumatra island and the Mentawai islands are being warned to seek high ground.
More than a dozen countries across the Indian Ocean were already subject to a tsunami watch including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore.
In Thailand, the National Disaster Warning Centre ordered the evacuation of six coastal provinces, including Phuket, Krabi and Phang-Nga.
And India's Tsunami Warning Center issued its own warning for parts of the eastern Andaman and Nicobar islands.
But hours after the quake there are no reports of a threatening tsunami developing.
British geological survey seismologist Roger Musson, who has studied the volatile fault lines in the region, told The Associated Press that the earthquake Tuesday was a strike-slip quake in which the earth shifts horizontally.
Unlike thrust quakes where the earth moves vertically, the chances of Tuesday's temblor triggering a significant wave were slim.
A giant 9.1-magnitude quake that struck the same region on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, 170,000 of them in Aceh province alone.