Powerful Earthquake Strikes N. Sumatra, Indonesia

Serial No  1,542. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

Powerful earthquake measuring up to 7.9Mw strikes northern Sumatra, Indonesia

The quake struck at a depth of about 46km (28.6 miles) on April 06, 2010 at 22:15:02UTC about 205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia. The epicenter was located at 2.236°N, 97.046°E.

The quake struck about 160km southeast of the magnitude 9.1 quake which triggered the destructive Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

The epicenter was also about 34km NNW of the a magnitude 8.6 shock which occurred on March 28, 2005.

A magnitude 7.6 quake in West Sumatra in September 2009 killed 1,000 people, official records showed.

Tsunami Evaluation

The following bulletin was issued by the PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS a short time ago:

SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR THOSE AREAS – WHEN DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS.  AS LOCAL CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION
MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL COASTAL CURRENTS.

ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.

LOCATION         FORECAST POINT     COORDINATES     ARRIVAL TIME
———————————————————————————————————
INDONESIA        SIMEULUE 2.5N  96.0E            22:46UTC 06 APR
+++++++++++BELAWAN 3.8N  98.8E            02:33UTC 07 APR

ADDITIONAL BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI  WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT AS MORE INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION…THE MORE CONSERVATIVE  INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.

There was no report of damage or casualties, as of posting.  However, a major power blackout on Simeulue Island, west of Aceh province, Indonesia, has been reported.

Updates will posted in the comments section of this post.

Earthquake Details:

• Magnitude [USGS Estimate] 7.8
• Date-Time:
  • Tuesday, April 06, 2010 at 22:15:02 UTC
  • Wednesday, April 07, 2010 at 05:15:02 AM at epicenter
• Location: 2.236°N, 97.046°E
• Depth: 46 km (28.6 miles)
• Region: NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
• Distances:
  • 205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
  • 230 km (145 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
  • 525 km (325 miles) W of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
  • 1425 km (880 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
• Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 7.4 km (4.6 miles); depth +/- 11.6 km (7.2 miles)
• Source: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
• Event ID: us2010utc5

Seismotectonics of the Indonesian Region

The Indonesian region is one of the most seismically active zones of the earth; at the same time it has a leading position from the point of view of active and potentially active volcanoes. It is a typical island-arc structure with its characteristic physiographic features, such as a deep oceanic trench, a geanticline belt, a volcanic inner arc and a marginal basin.

In most subduction zones, motion of the subducted plate is nearly perpendicular to the trench axis. In some cases, for example Sumatra, where the motion is oblique to the axis, a strike-slip fault zone is seen, and is lying parallel to the volcanic chain.

In the subduction zone southwest of Sumatra, the Sunda trench axis strikes approximately N 37°W. The Indian Ocean crust is moving in an azimuth of approximately N 23°E relative to Southeast Asia, giving an angle of obliquity of 60°. Eastern Indonesia, forming the southeastern extremity of the Southeast Asian lithospheric plate, crushed between the northward-moving Indo-Australian and the westward-moving Pacific plates, is certainly the most complex active tectonic zone on earth. The rate of subduction is some centimeters per year; for example, it is 6.0 cm per year in the West Java Trench at 0°S 97°E (azimuth 23°); 4.9 cm per year in the East Java Trench at 12°S 120°E (azimuth 19°); and 10.7 cm per year in New Guinea at 3°S 142°E (azimuth 75°).

Frequent volcanic eruptions and frequent earthquake shocks testify to the active tectonic processes which are currently in progress in response to the continued movement of these major plates. The distribution of small ocean basins, continental fragments, remnants of ancient magmatic arcs and numerous subduction complexes which make up the Indonesian region indicate that the past history of the region was equally tectonically active.

Abridged from Southeast Asia Association of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Series on Seismology, Volume V – Indonesia, June 1985. (Source: USGS/EHP)

Maps

• Politcal Map of Indonesia
• Seismic Hazard Map
• Earthquake Density Map
• Seismicity Map of Indonesia

• Geography of Indonesia

Related Links:

• Strong Quake Strikes Andaman Islands
  
• Magnitude 7.0ML Quake Strikes Obira Indonesia
• Large Quake Could Strike Near Padang, Sumatra
• Powerful quake shakes Sumbawa, Indonesia
• Powerful Earthquake Strikes Banda Sea

• Strong Quake Strikes Sunda Strait, Indonesia
• Recent Earthquakes ≥ 6.0 Mw
• Earth undergoing significant geophysical disturbances
• Earthquakes: Human Enhanced Disasters – UPDATE 3 Oct 2009

• FEWW Earthquake Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links

Historic Earthquakes in Indonesia

• 1917 01 20 – Bali, Indonesia Fatalities 1,500
• 1938 02 01 – Banda Sea, Indonesia – M 8.5
• 1965 01 24 – Sanana, Indonesia (Ceram Sea) – M 7.6 Fatalities 71
• 1976 06 25 – Papua, Indonesia – M 7.1 Fatalities 5,000
• 1992 12 12 – Flores Region, Indonesia – M 7.8 Fatalities 2,500
• 2000 06 04 – Southern Sumatera, Indonesia – M 7.9 Fatalities 103
• 2002 10 10 – Irian Jaya, Indonesia – M 7.6 Fatalities 8
• 2002 11 02 – Northern Sumatera, Indonesia – M 7.4 Fatalities 3
• 2003 05 26 – Halmahera, Indonesia – M 7.0 Fatalities 1
• 2004 01 28 – Seram, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2004 02 05 – Irian Jaya, Indonesia – M 7.0 Fatalities 37
• 2004 02 07 – Irian Jaya, Indonesia – M 7.3
• 2004 07 25 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 7.3
• 2004 11 11 – Kepulauan Alor, Indonesia – M 7.5 Fatalities 34
• 2004 11 26 – Papua, Indonesia – M 7.1 Fatalities 32
• 2004 12 26 – Sumatra-Andaman Islands – M 9.1 Fatalities 227,898
• 2005 01 01 – Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra – M 6.7
• 2005 02 19 – Sulawesi, Indonesia – M 6.5
• 2005 02 26 – Simeulue, Indonesia – M 6.8
• 2005 03 02 – Banda Sea – M 7.1
• 2005 03 28 – Northern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 8.6 Fatalities 1,313
• 2005 04 10 – Kepulauan Mentawai Region, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2005 05 14 – Nias Region, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2005 05 19 – Nias Region, Indonesia – M 6.9
• 2005 07 05 – Nias Region, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2005 11 19 – Simeulue, Indonesia – M 6.5
• 2006 01 27 – Banda Sea – M 7.6
• 2006 03 14 – Seram, Indonesia – M 6.7 Fatalities 4
• 2006 05 16 – Nias Region, Indonesia – M 6.8
• 2006 05 26 – Java, Indonesia – M 6.3 Fatalities 5,749
• 2006 07 17 – South of Java, Indonesia – M 7.7 Fatalities 730
• 2007 01 21 – Molucca Sea – M 7.5 Fatalities 4
• 2007 03 06 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 6.4 Fatalities 67
• 2007 07 26 – Molucca Sea – M 6.9
• 2007 08 08 – Java, Indonesia – M 7.5
• 2007 09 12 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 8.5 Fatalities 25
• 2007 09 12 – Kepulauan Mentawai region, Indonesia – M 7.9
• 2007 09 20 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2007 10 24 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 6.8
• 2007 11 25 – Sumbawa Region, Indonesia – M 6.5 Fatalities 3
• 2008 02 20 – Simeulue, Indonesia – M 7.4 Fatalities 3
• 2008 02 25 – Kepulauan Mentawai region, Indonesia – M 7.2
• 2008 11 16 – Minahasa, Sulawesi, Indonesia – M 7.4 Fatalities 6
• 2009 01 03 – Near the North Coast of Papua, Indonesia – M 7.7 Fatalities 5
• 2009 01 03 – Near the North Coast of Papua, Indonesia – M 7.4
• 2009 02 11 – Kepulauan Talaud, Indonesia – M 7.2
• 2009 08 16 – Kepulauan Mentawai region, Indonesia – M 6.7
• 2009 08 28 – Banda Sea – M 6.9
• 2009 09 02 – Java, Indonesia – M 7.0 Fatalities 81
• 2009 09 30 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 7.5 Fatalities 1,117
• 2009 10 01 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia – M 6.6
• 2009 10 24 – Banda Sea – M 6.9
• 2009 11 08 – Sumbawa region, Indonesia – M 6.6 Fatalities 2