TSUNAMI WATCH Cancelled over the Indian Ocean Region;

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.