Sumatra, Earthquake | featured news

Earthquake monitoring agencies issued a tsunami warning on Monday after a powerful tremor measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale under the sea off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

A magnitude-6.5 undersea earthquake shook the western shore of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday, causing panic but no casualties or damage, an official said.

The quake struck late at night 74 miles (119 kilometers) southeast of Pagai Selatan, an island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official Gian Ginanjar said.
The quake struck 6 miles (10 kilometers) beneath the Indian Ocean bed. There was no tsunami potential, he said.

The 6.9 magnitude struck at 08:52 a.m. local time Thursday on Sumatra island, about 180 miles from the epicenter of a more powerful quake on Wednesday. Rescue workers used excavators Thursday to pull out victims, some screaming in pain, from the heavy rubble of buildings felled by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 531 people. The death toll was expected to rise.

A 7.0-magnitude quake struck off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.