7.5 quake reported off Indonesia on Monday; tsunami warning called off
7.5 quake strikes Monday off the coast of Indonesia. A tsunami warning initially posted after the 7.5 quake has been withdrawn.
People try to reach their relatives by cellular phone as they flee to higher ground in Padang, West Sumatra, on October 25, after a major 7.5 quake triggered a tsunami warning. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties and an earlier tsunami warning was lifted.
Rus Akbar/AFP Photo/Newscom
Jakarta, Indonesia
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.5 under the ocean off Indonesia's Sumatra island Monday sparked initial tsunami warnings, but the Indonesian earthquake agency later withdrew the alert.
There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties from the quake, which the earthquake agency measured at 7.2, followed by two aftershocks of magnitude 5.
The agency said the quake hit 48 miles west of South Pagai, one of the remote and sparsely developed Mentawai islands, at a depth of 10 kilometers.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.5, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a local tsunami watch was in effect but a wider tsunami threat was not seen.
In December 2004, a tsunami caused by an earthquake of more than 9 magnitude off Sumatra killed more than 226,000 people. It was the deadliest tsunami on record.