Tsunami Alert issued After Sumatra Quake
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tsunami Alert issued After Sumatra Quake*
Tuesday October 2, 2007 10:46 AM
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A strong earthquake hit the western coast of
Indonesia's Sumatra island Tuesday, prompting authorities to temporarily
issue a tsunami alert.
The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck nearly 100 miles
off the coast of the town of Bengkulu, the Meteorological and Geophysics
Agency said.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the strength at a weaker 6.2 magnitude.
A series of powerful earthquakes in the same region last month killed 23
people and damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings.
There were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or damage from
Tuesday's trembler.
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 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed
more than 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and left a
half-million homeless.