Wednesday September 12, 2007
Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia, tsunami warning issued
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): 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 105 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Bengkulu on Sumatra island at a depth of 15.6 kilometers (9.7 miles), it 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.
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 volcanos 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 29 kilometers (18 miles) deep, according to USGS.
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