INDONESIA QUAKE TRIGGERS TSUNAMI SCARE

An 8.7 earthquake with epicenter near Sumatra, Indonesia triggered a fresh Tsunami scare yesterday night along the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Wikipedia has details. The quake was almost as strong as the Dec 26, 2004 quake which had triggered Tsunamis across the coastal regions creating mass devastation (273,000 confirmed dead). But thanks God that there was no Tsunami generated yesterday.

Massive evacuations began in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India & Thailand after Tsunami alert. Two persons have died in Sri Lanka during evacuation. In Indonesia two thousand people are feared dead after the quake.

Scientists are wondering why the quake did not cause a killer Tsunami. Australian newspapers report that waves upto 50cm has hit the coasts of Western Australia.

Two aftershocks were reported and many adjacent countries encountered minor quakes. A local newspaper reports that there was an earthquake in the magnitude of 5.1 near Chittagong, coastal city of Bangladesh at the Bay of Bengal last night. No casualties reported.

Indonesia, Malaysia & Sri Lanka have already withdrawn Tsunami alert.

For up-to-date information on this:

* The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

* Wikipedia-2005 Sumatran Earthquake