Major quake off Indonesia caused 3-meter (9.8-feet) high tsunami

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Major quake off Indonesia caused 3-meter (9.8-feet) high tsunami

2010-10-26 09:39:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) -- A major earthquake that struck off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia on Monday created a three-meter (9.8-feet) tsunami that struck a nearby residents, but surprisingly caused no casualties.

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake at 9.42 p.m. local time (1442 GMT) was centered just off the Mentawai Islands, about 240 kilometers (149 miles) south of Padang, the capital and largest city of West Sumatra. It struck about 20 kilometers (12.8 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Indonesia's seismological agency immediately issued a tsunami warning for nearby coastlines, prompting residents in the region to flee coastlines in fear of a tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch, which was canceled about an hour later.

While officials initially said no tsunami had been generated, officials later said the huge earthquake had generated a significant tsunami that struck nearby areas. And while the tsunami was in most locations relatively small, the wave was large enough to travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the earthquake epicenter.

A tsunami expert at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center told BNO News that the largest tsunami recorded was about half a meter (1.7 feet) high, which is measured relative to normal sea level and is not crest-to-trough wave height.

According to the center, small tsunamis were recorded in Tanahbalah, Padang and Enggano in Indonesia. Additionally, a small 11 centimeters (0.4 feet) tsunami was recorded on the Cocos Islands of Australia, indicating the tsunami traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across the ocean.

On the Mentawai Islands, which is only several kilometers (miles) from the epicenter, a three-meter (9.8 feet) tsunami wave struck Macaronis Surf Resort. It caused two boats to collide, after one of them exploded.

Australian man Rick Hallet, who has a charter boat operation in Sumatra, told the Nine Network that 15 people were on the back deck of his boat in the bay off the Mentawai Islands when they felt what they thought was an earthquake.

"Within several minutes a large wall of white water came through the bay and took us out essentially," he told the network. "It was night time around about 10 p.m., a two to three meter wall of white water came into the bay and there was another boat anchored out the side of us."

"The wave picked that boat up and brought it towards us and ran straight into us and our boat exploded, caught on fire, we had a fireball on the back deck and right through the saloon within seconds," he said.

Hallet said he had ordered everyone up to the top deck before the boat crashed into his. "Then the boat exploded and we had to abandon ship," he said. "We threw whatever we could that floated - surfboards, fenders - then we jumped into the water."

Hallet told how they were then swept about 200 meters (218 yards) inland by the large waves and sheltered in high trees for about 90 minutes until they were rescued. "We stayed up in the trees until we felt there was no more risk of waves or big surges coming through," he added.

Fortunately, there were no reports of casualties from both the tsunami as well as the earthquake.

Indonesia is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions also occur frequently in the region.

On December 26, 2004, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The 9.1-magnitude earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami, striking scores of countries. In all, at least 227,898 people were killed.

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