Sumatra Rocked By Earthquake

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA (GaeaTimes.com)- An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 on the Richter scale has hit the western coast of Sumatra island in Indonesia on Monday morning. The tremor that rocked parts of Sumatra has been felt in as many as five towns of both the Bengkulu and West Sumatra provinces and has been accompanied by a number of aftershocks, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency of the country has revealed. As per the latest reports, at least two people have been killed while hundreds are said to be missing from an Indonesian village which is among the regions worst-affected by the earthquake.

Following the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, a tsunami alert was issued briefly but it was later canceled after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reiterated that the tremor does not pose any threat of a widespread tsunami. However, officials of a disaster management agency has revealed to the media that a small tsunami was triggered that made its presence felt along the island of Pagai with the tremor being focused around 20 kilometers under the ocean floor. At the same time, the Mentawai island along the Sumatra coast is known to have suffered significant damage due to the tremor with houses being destroyed as people fled their homes for safer locations.

The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that rocked the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island is the latest tremor to hit the region which is often in news for its seismic activity. The country which is the largest archipelago across the world is situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, that makes it extremely prone to earthquakes as well as volcanoes.