8.7M Earthquake off the Indonesian Coast

[Fox]

A shallow 8.7 earthquake just occurred off the Indonesian coast close to the area where the 9.0 M earthquake occurred in 2004, resulting in 220000 people being killed. There have been some very big earthquakes recently. Do you think rising sea levels will bring more large earthquakes like this? The loading of the oceans is one of the most common triggers of earthquakes or so I'm led to believe.

[jdsmith]

oh crap

[antarcticbeech]

I'm just wondering what the warning system is like now in Aceh. I vaguely remember reading that Australian scientists detected the previous one but that the Indonesian government, upon being informed of it, had no system to warn its people. I stand to be corrected.

[cfimages]

According to friends working in the region (one in Penang, the other in Phuket), they've had tsunami warnings but no call to evacuate. Apparently the quake shook sideways which lessens the risk of tsunami. The previous one in Indonesia and Japan were both from vertical movement.

[Icon]

Like 6 major aftershocks, and still trembling... Oceans readings irregular, tsunami is there, but where?

[zyzzx]

This earthquake should not produce a big tsunami. As cfimages said, it's a different type of earthquake than the tsunami-producing earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and 2004 Indonesia. According to the data on the USGS earthquake website, this one is pretty much entirely sideways motion - the different sides of the fault are sliding past each other rather than moving towards each other. So there should be pretty minimal vertical motion of the sea floor, which is what causes tsunamis.

So there is most likely no (or very little) tsunami danger.

[Icon]

This earthquake should not produce a big tsunami. As cfimages said, it's a different type of earthquake than the tsunami-producing earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and 2004 Indonesia. According to the data on the USGS earthquake website, this one is pretty much entirely sideways motion - the different sides of the fault are sliding past each other rather than moving towards each other. So there should be pretty minimal vertical motion of the sea floor, which is what causes tsunamis.

So there is most likely no (or very little) tsunami danger.

Well, so far so good, thank goodness. Too much pain there to have it all happen again, even though the odds are stacked so that something might.

[Rockefeller]

A shallow 8.7 earthquake just occurred off the Indonesian coast close to the area where the 9.0 M earthquake occurred in 2004, resulting in 220000 people being killed. There have been some very big earthquakes recently. Do you think rising sea levels will bring more large earthquakes like this? The loading of the oceans is one of the most common triggers of earthquakes or so I'm led to believe.

Actually, the quake was 8.6-magnitude. The aftershock was 8.2.
The tsunami watch has been lifted for most of Indian Ocean, and hopefully it will too for Indonesia, India, islands.

[tommy525]

Havent heard reports of widespread deaths on this one which is awesome considering its firepower.

Its in the same general area as the deadly 2004 quake. I wonder if its an aftershock of that event?

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Actually, data supports that where a strong earthquake has ocurred, there is higher possibility of strong earthquakes happening in the same region. Which does not bode well for us in Taiwan, either...