Manila (Philippines) 11 April 2012 – An earthquake struck off coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, specifically it’s about 434 km Southwest of Northern Sumatra. The earthquake struck 4:38 PM Indonesia local time. The said earthquake reached a Magnitude 8.9 but later on it was lowered by the USGS to Magnitude 8.6.
With this amount of force released to the grounds, different national agencies including PTWC have issued a Tsunami Watch all over the Indian Ocean. This event was taken seriously by different countries all over the Indian Ocean: Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives and other countries in the east of African Continent.
(Reuters Agency) India – officials in the Andaman islands in India have evacuated a few thousand people to higher ground as the islands prepare for tsunami waves up to 3.9 meters.”There could be high waves of 1.5 metres at Port Blair and 3.9 metres at Campbell Bay,” said Prabhakar Rao, the official in charge of the disaster control room at Port Blair, the main town on the islands. “We have evacuated people from low lying areas of Campbell Bay islands and we have also alerted them as there is a reportthat high waves may hit Indira Point area,” south Andaman region police superintendent S.B.S. Tyagi said.
(Aljazeera) Thailand – Thai authorities have shut the international airport on the southern tourist island of Phuket, Six provinces along the Andaman coast were issued a tsunami warning following the initial quake off Aceh and people has started evacuating on higher grounds
(Aljazeera) Sri Lanka – reporting from Sri Lanka, says the acting media minister has stated that tourists in hotels along the coastal belt have been moved to safer ground following renewed warnings of a tsunami for the Indian Ocean.
(Aljazeera) Indonesia – People from coastal areas in Indonesia have been evacuated. There are no reports of damages or casualties.
Three hours after the initial quake it was still unclear whether a tsunami had been generated. A geophysicist from the PTWC stated that a gauge closest to the epicenter of the quake off the northern coast of Sumatra recorded a peak of about a meter. A bulletin issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on 10:14 UTC stated that a tsunami was generated and may have been destructive along some coasts already. However, BBC reported that the quake was unlikely to generate a tidal wave. Indonesian authorities have also issued a statement saying that the probability of occurrence of a tsunami is low.
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
——————- —– —— —– ————— —–
KO TAPHAO NOI TH 7.8N 98.4E 1143Z 0.05M / 0.2FT 06MIN
ENGGANO ID 5.3S 102.3E 1104Z 0.12M / 0.4FT 04MIN
TRINCONMALEE LK 8.6N 81.2E 1129Z 0.06M / 0.2FT 16MIN
TELUKDALAM ID 0.6N 97.8E 1044Z 0.22M / 0.7FT 14MIN
COCOS ISLAND AU 12.1S 96.9E 1102Z 0.08M / 0.3FT 18MIN
SABANG ID 5.8N 95.3E 1010Z 0.36M / 1.2FT 06MIN
MEULABOH ID 4.1N 96.1E 1007Z 1.06M / 3.5FT 12MIN
DART 23401 8.9N 88.5E 0956Z 0.03M / 0.1FT 06MIN
2004 Earthquake and 2012 Earthquake Scenario
December 26, 2004. A 9.1 Earthquake struck almost same area, which generated a monster wave that killed 200,000 people. Now another huge earthquake struck with a Magnitude of 8.6, different countries fear for a possible scenario that might happen. After several hours, PTWC has lifted all watches in the region.
A possible explanation for this is that the “Boxing Day” Tsunami, which was triggered on December 26, 2004, was generated by a subduction fault undersea. The sudden movement causes the wave to be in its chaos form.
April 11, 2012 Earthquake’s movement is strike slip. Meaning the movement of the fault are nearly vertical. This may cause a minimal waves not destructive as the subduction movement.
Although waves still can reach a meter.
Thank goodness this ended the way it did, when the first reports of a massive earthquake cam through thoughts of something much worst raced through my mind. I am sad to hear of damage but, no deaths gives me a large sigh of relief.