More Quakes Shake Indonesia
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
PADANG, Indonesia (AP) – Three powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24 hours, triggering tsunami alerts today and sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground. At least nine people were killed in the tremors.
The first two quakes in western Indonesia — magnitudes 8.4 and 7.8 — were followed by a 6.2-magnitude temblor in the east, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The largest spawned nearly 10-foot-high waves on Sumatra island yesterday, and the other two today triggered tsunami alerts, Indonesia’s meteorological agency said.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh.
