Tsunami Alert for Indian Ocean after 7.7 magnitude earthquake
by Sail-World.com on 13 Jun 2010
2004 12 27 Tsunami SW
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii has issued a regional tsunami watch for all areas of the Indian ocean following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake near India's Nicobar Islands, early this morning.
The epicentre of the earthquake was 97 miles (155 km) west of Misha on the Nicobar Islands at a depth of 21.7 miles (34 km), and northwest of the tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the U.S. Geological Survey advises.
'A tsunami watch is in effect for India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Malaysia, for other areas of the Indian ocean region,' the warning centre in Hawaii said.
'Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and sometimes a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located usually no more than a thousand kilometers (620 miles) from the earthquake epicenter,' the tsunami warning centre said.
However, it added, 'it is not known that a tsunami was generated. This watch is based only on the earthquake evaluation.'
The bulletin, it said, 'is issued as advice to government agencies,' adding that the responsibility for issuing official alerts rests with national and local governments.
On December 27th 2004, a magnitude 9.15 earthquake off the Indonesian coast caused an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed around 226,000 people across Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India and surrounding regions.
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