At 12:49 p.m. GMT on Wednesday , March 2 , a magnitude 7.8 to 7.9 earthquake struck off the westerly coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra , according to theU.S. Geological Survey(USGS ) . As is standard practice when large tremors occur within the oceans , a tsunami warning was issued .
as luck would have it , as of 4 p.m. GMT , there appear to be no signs of a tsunami . In summation , there are no reports of major structural damage on the mainland or any nearby islands , nor any injuries . The tsunami warning has also beenofficially cancelled .
The epicenter was 808 kilometers ( 502 miles ) southwest of Padang , a city that rapidly felt the earth tremor . According to theGuardian , people quick run outside of their house and gain higher land . The rift hap at a profundity of24 kilometers(14.9 land mile ) , too deep and too distant from any major cities or population to do any serious terms .
Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire , a complex placement of collide and grinding tectonic plate . The descent ( subduction ) of the Indo - Australian plate beneath the Sunda plate is creditworthy not only for the prominent volcanoes found in the region – includingKrakatau – but also a wide range of earthquakes .
theatrical role of the subducting plate occasionally encounter some resistance , and this can establish up Brobdingnagian quantity of stress . The handout of this stress cause earthquakes , and although many are harmless , some can be truly devastating . It was along this plate boundary that the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred ; registered as a magnitude 9.1 consequence , it liberate the DOE of 23,000 Hiroshima - character atomic bombs in mere moments . The resulting gargantuan tsunamikilled 200,000 mass .
In this character , the tremor was due to two part of the Indo - Australian plategrating alongsideeach other . A tsunami can only go on if a large amount of water is displaced , and this type of crustal plate motion – astrike - slip fracture – is improbable to cause this . This time around , the people of Indonesia , and the wide region , have lucky .
The order of magnitude of Wednesday ’s earthquake is almost identical to that of the one that light upon Nepal last April . unluckily , this extremely shallow quake occurred on land , close to Kathmandu , and9,000 people were killed .
