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Locations Effected By Earthquake
Nias Island, Barus, Sibolga, Airb, Labuhanrima, Natal, Parapat, Pangururan, Pemstangsiantar, Simeulue, Sinahann, Tapakluan, the epicentre was 410 km southwest of Banda Aceh in the Andean Sea.
Location with respect to nearby cities
205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
245 km (155 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
535 km (330 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
1410 km (880 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
A Major Earthquake strikes Indonesia's Sumatra Islands late night Monday on 28th March 2005
A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island late Monday, damaging hundreds of buildings and sending residents fleeing in panic. Officials issued a tsunami warning for as far away as Sri Lanka. The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS research geophysicist.
Tsunami warnings were issued in Thailand, India, Japan and Sri Lanka, although officials in Thailand later called it off for that country. The only tsunami reported within four hours was a tiny one - less than 4 inches - at the Cocos Islands, 1,400 miles west of Australia, meteorologists in Sydney said.
The worst damage was reported on Nias Island, off the Sumatran coast, close to the epicenter of the earthquake, and dozens may be buried in the rubble, said Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on the island. "Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or have collapsed. People who were standing fell over," Mendrofa said. "We're not sure about casualties, but there may be dozens of people buried in the rubble."
U.N. disaster relief coordinator Jan Egeland said there were unconfirmed reports of deaths. "The hard-hit population of western Sumatra have been again struck by a very large earthquake," Egeland said. Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed at least 175,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations and left another 106,000 missing. At least 340 residents of Nias perished and 10,000 were left homeless.
Indonesian officials said the quake's epicenter was 56 miles south of the island of Simeulu, off of Sumatra's western coast, and just north of Nias. It was described by one of the agency's geologists as an aftershock of the devastating Dec. 26 quake. An aftershock measuring 6.0 was reported in the same region nearly 30 minutes later, the USGS said.
In Banda Aceh, the Sumatran city hit hardest in December, the quake briefly cut electricity. Thousands poured into the streets to flee low-lying areas. The West Coast-Alaska tsunami-warning center said that if no tsunami waves are observed in the region near the epicenter within three hours, then it is likely that the danger has passed.
A little over two hours after the first massive quake, a second one of 6.0 magnitude was recorded off the western coast of Sumatra. Eighteen minutes later there was a third one, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale.
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